Last night I showed the kids this amazing video by a special effects company. About halfway through JB was like, um are you sure our children should be seeing a bunch of guys screaming and on fire and shit? but I thought it was a pretty good way to understand how the intense stuff in movies isn’t real. Riley was particularly mesmerized by the idea of building entire virtual worlds and layering in details (he kept comparing it to Minecraft) (which is sort of funny, being as how Minecraft pretty much looks like you’ve jetted back in time to 1976 in order to play Breakout), but I think he was even more inspired by the battle scenes. Not the guys on fire part — I hope — but the epic explosions and whatnot. As I was driving him to school today I kept hearing muffled warfare-noises from the backseat. “Neeerrrrooowwwkapooosh,” “Powpowpowpowpowpow,” “KaPEWWWW,” etc.

This actually par for the course with Riley. He’s the exact opposite of a violent kid but there is a near-constant stream of gunfire sounds coming from him whenever he’s entertaining himself. Usually he’s holding a toy or Lego and frowningly carrying out some complicated military operation, and sometimes, like this morning, he’s just gazing out the window while dry-firing his imaginary weapons.

Have I told you how a young neighbor girl comes home with us after school during the week? I get a kick out of her because she’s as rough and tumble as the boys, but totally obsessed with different stuff. Horses and nail polish, mostly.

Anyway, there he was, kabooshing away, and usually I tell him to give me a goddamned goshdarned break from the artillery but instead I cupped my hand over my mouth and said “KSSSHT. Pilot to bombardier, pilot to bombardier, we’re nearing the target, do you read, over?” I peeked in the rearview mirror, and he was frozen, staring back at me with visible waves of delight beaming out from his entire body.

The rest of the way to school the three of us radioed commands back and forth. We released missiles, deployed revolver cannons, and wiped out entire cities of bad guys. Dylan got very excited and maybe a little confused, shouting “THERE’S AN OCTOPUS!” at one point. I drove into the pull-through lane and announced that ksssht, we’re coming in for a landing, and Riley wanted to know if we could please play the game again tomorrow, PLEASE? I said maybe, maybe. Before I drove away, I rolled down the window and said, “Nice work out there, soldier.” And he stood on the walkway in front of his school and damned if he didn’t snap off a perfect salute, with a grin that lit up the grey December sky like a big beautiful computer-generated fireball.

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Rachel
Rachel
10 years ago

Totally going to do this. Great parenting tip thank you!

Pete
Pete
10 years ago

That was a great video.

Nicole
Nicole
10 years ago

Love!! You’re a great mom!

Judy
Judy
10 years ago

You da Mom!

Redbecca
Redbecca
10 years ago

Aww that kicked ass!! Great post!

Heather S.
Heather S.
10 years ago

Love this!

Karen
Karen
10 years ago

And you know he will remember that for years…Someday he & Dylan will be talking about things they did when they were “younger” and Riley will pipe up and say “Do you remember when mom did that soldier ‘stuff’ in the car with us on the way to school?” Totally awesome!!

Meadow
Meadow
10 years ago

Yeah! Mom FTW! Nice work, Linda.

Niki
Niki
10 years ago

This is the best! Good job Mom.

Victoria
10 years ago

Adorable

Faith
Faith
10 years ago

I really think the key to life for me is to construct my circumstances so that I’m able to be relaxed and patient enough, at least most of the time, to do stuff like this with my kids. To pull myself out of my own stressed out world and live in theirs for a second. I know we’d all be happier that way, but still I fight it time and time again. Thanks for the inspiration.

el-e-e
10 years ago

Brilliance. I am a little choked up!

Karin
Karin
10 years ago

Lovely, lovely story and what an awesome way to start their day!

Years ago, my youngest was having a crummy school year. In order to get him out of bed in the morning, I woke him up using a different accent/funny voice with a crazy story every day. It culminated in the Queen of England (complete with tiara) waking him up on the last day of school. There was a whole long backstory. (She’d lost a poker bet with her butler, so he sent her to do wake up.) We still laugh about it–usually with him shaking his head.

It is the small silly stuff they remember years later–not the big holiday productions, not the huge vacations, but the small everyday stuff that is meaningful to them.

Sarah
Sarah
10 years ago

You’re so awesome. That is all.

Anna
Anna
10 years ago

Dammit, that made me cry. I love those moments, and find it so hard to break out of the day to day slog seize them.

Jennifer
10 years ago

Made me tear up a bit too. Sweet story.

Amy Pollak
Amy Pollak
10 years ago

Beautiful story, beautiful writing (as always).

Laurelie
Laurelie
10 years ago

Warm fuzzy feelings! It’s always amazing when something so small ends up being such a big thing!

C
C
10 years ago

That is so cute I cried.

June
10 years ago

High five! WTG.

Maggie
10 years ago

This post made me a bit teary. It is all too easy to tell the kids to stop with the racket, or in my case, quit talking my ear off about so and so at school, but just engaging with them can make all the difference in the world and I forget that sometimes (or most of the time). We all want to be heard, just sometimes we don’t want to listen when we should.

dorrie
dorrie
10 years ago

Oooof. Right in the feels. A+

Laura
Laura
10 years ago

Such a great idea. Gold star to you for embracing their interests in such a fun way.

Alyssa
Alyssa
10 years ago

I too have a boy that seems to be constantly making pshew pshew sounds as he plays. I usually watch and think how foreign boys can seem, as I grew up with no brothers. But the way you engaged with him is so great! Thanks for the inspiration!

Jess
Jess
10 years ago

This was awesome. A+ parenting right there. And what a damn reminder that I have to pull my head out of ass sometimes and engage in activity like this. Seems I spend too much time begging for “one damn minute of silence”! Totally awesome Linda!

Liz
Liz
10 years ago

Not going to lie… I just teared up a little reading your post. I needed this reminder today. You are awesome. Merry Christmas!

Emma
Emma
10 years ago

And it was FREE! Probably made both of your days (as well as all of us readers’)…awesome way to create a world you both can enjoy.

simon
10 years ago

This is a good reminder. I’ve been forgetting recently to make things fun for my boys.

Thanks, man.

Janet
Janet
10 years ago

Love, love this. This is what I do when I’m teaching my social groups full of quirky kids….as one Mom said, “You’re awesome because you don’t put their genie all the way back in the bottle.”

Trish
Trish
10 years ago

I have a 12 year old that would have loved that when he was younger too. What a great mom!

Melissa
Melissa
10 years ago

Okay it’s not very tough of me but that whole post made me want to cry. There’s no crying in warfare!

Kami
Kami
10 years ago

Such a little thing to us, but huge to them. I need to do it more often. Great post.

Merry Christmas to your family :-)

Anais
Anais
10 years ago

This made me smile, cry and laugh with the bit about Dylan’s octopus. Great job, mom!

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