Do you want to steal a space ship?

[SHMD]

SWMBO had been bribing and cajoling my 5yr old all weekend with promises of being able to watch some “space TV”; 'Put your socks on straight', 'Brush your teeth – yes properly', 'sit down still', 'eat it all up', now do your home work(!!!), ... . . . ...

 

Needless to say that I/(us all) were all in favour.

Anything for a quite life, but promises of being able to watch some Sci-Fi TV were greedily accepted by all around and thoughts of “fantastic battles between space alien monsters” with plenty of “laser blasts” and “big explosions” were soon occupying both my mind and my sons mind too.

 

The day progressed with more and more demanding chores from SWMBO followed, as she soon realised the power of this latest behavioural modification tool – the “down right bribe”!

 

The weekend wore on but my son was growing wary as the realisation of the falsehood dawned on him.

 

Eventually, the promised TV was allowed and I selected a suitable CD from my collection. Joseph, my son, all weekend wanted to watch some space TV; 'Star Trek', 'Star Gate', 'Star Wars', whatever(!) – yes Yes YES Daddy! It didn't really matter as he didn't know any of them so I selected one good for battle scenes and aliens!

 

He was still a little restless as the episode started and I narrated the narration; “The alien humans are baddies”, ”the alien aliens are goodies”, and so it went on!

Very soon into the episode I am talking a lot as I explain the characters, scenes and plot to my 5yr old.

 

In a sudden flash of inspiration I realise how to boil the whole episode down into one sentence:-

 

“Do you want to learn how to steal a space ship?” I ask my son?

 

 

Well, this connected with my son better than any number of frozen fishing trips into the wilderness. He stood there looking at me in awe, wide eyed, and with his jaw hanging down. His head nodded, imperceptibly as he nodded his agreement with this new plan...

 

Oh dear I've gone too far again...How to explain his disappointment as he soon realised that immanent swash buckling space adventure “wasn't” in his immediate travel plans plus the fact that 'stealing' was wrong!

 

Disappointment doesn’t nearly cover it.

Oh well. We are still friends and we did see a good episode of Star Gate.