Big Dreams!

My ten-year-old son was causing me some concern last week. For the past several weeks he has been going on and on about his favorite Batman character, who happens to be two-face – a guy who can’t decide whether he should be good or bad, so flips a coin to see. Then he added in his favorite Lego Wii Star Wars characters, and all of  them were the baddest of the bad: Emperor Palpatine, Darth Mal, etc.

Usually I take the direct approach when I am concerned about something, but this time I decided to try a different tactic. This is how the conversation went:

“So, son, I have a question for you. What are your plans for when you are an adult? I mean, it  seems that all of your favorite characters are bad guys, and so I am just wondering what do you plan to do when you are grown up?”

“Mom, I promise, I am going to have a good job. I am going to mow lawns. I will work really hard mowing lawns every day. I will have breakfast, lunch and supper and mow lawns.

(Note: About six months ago my son was asking for jobs to make money for a toy he wanted. I told him that next summer he would be old enough to mow lawns for us or maybe even for the neighbors, and that he could make good money that way, for a ten-year-old!)

And, Mom, I am going to have a wife, and when I come home from mowing lawns there will be chicken fries waiting for me at the door. Well, not right at the door, but you know what I mean.”

(I’ll have to let his future wife know about that – hopefully Schwans will still be making his favorite food!)

“Well, that sounds like a great plan, son. I’ll stop worrying.”

Later that evening he started talking about his favorite Star Wars character again, but this time, he was talking about one of the good guys.

Thanks, God, for the wisdom I needed to help him think things through without being a nag!