May the force be with you

This was a big weekend at our house. Evan watched Star Wars for the first time. Now let me back up. Let me back waaaaaaay up.

John is a Star Wars fan. Not like, “I’m going to dress as a Storm Trooper for the midnight showing” fan. Just a “I am going to go to a midnight showing” fan. He likes the movies, he just isn’t crazy. Now as the girlfriend of a fan, I needed to be up on my Star Wars lingo. I could name the characters. I knew Yoda was the little green one and Luke and Leia were brother and sister. But I had to admit to him at one point, I had never seen the movies. So being the good girlfriend I was, I sat down and watched the movies. I think it was a prerequisite for getting my rock.

I even went to see episode 1-3 (see…I know my stuff) in the theatre with him. I am not saying I totally get it, but I ‘ve seen them all. Aliens, good guys, bad guys, a little incest, lightsabers…got it.

Fast forward to after we get married. We talked about kids quite a bit those first five years. Places we would take them, how we would raise them, all those parenting things we saw other people do that we just KNEW we wouldn’t. At some point, Star Wars came up. Imagine that. I adamantly said I didn’t want my kids watching it until 2^nd grade. I taught second grade at the time and thought that age was the most appropriate to understand fantasy vs. reality. John was thinking younger. We contemplated knowing it didn’t really matter at that point, but enjoying the friendly banter back and forth.

Then we had kids…one who’s name is Luke….

A book in the Bible…A Star Wars character = win win for the Asbells.

Side bar: Someone played a practical joke on a teacher in Luke’s infant class and had her convinced Luke’s middle name was Skywalker. It’s not. It’s Charles.

So we began this discussion long before kids, but had no reality associated with it. Then we had kids and those kids got older.  Evan has gotten Star Wars toys since he was little. He has learned the characters names. He knows what color light saber each has. (Wait, you mean it just doesn’t go with their outfits? Like shoes or a purse?) He knows which ship they drive. (There are different ships?) John thought it time Evan was taught how all of the toys and information he had gathered all played out. Enter, the movie.

A little over a year ago we had to discussion again. I decided to take it to my lovely and quite intelligent Facebook friends. Funny enough, most of the guys went young with their desire age of exposure and most of the females went older. And some of the responses were truly hilarious!

 

 

I knew John would watch it with him. I knew Evan would tell us if he got scared. I knew Evan understood the difference in realty and fantasy. I knew this would make my little boy’s year.

One week this summer we had Evan all to ourselves and I buckled. I told John that we could watch Star Wars with Evan. There was also a movie in the theatre he wanted to see, so we gave him a choice. Much to our surprise, Evan wanted to go to the theatre. We don’t get to the movie theatre very often, so it really is a special treat to go see a movie in the theatre. John was disappointed, but kept his disappointment in check even if I found him walking about the house, scratching his head, muttering “I mean what little boy doesn’t want to watch Star Wars…is he even my kid….hmmmm”.

Additional Side Bar – there is no doubt Evan is John’s kid. Please do not start any rumors.

Evan continued to get books and toys and games all referencing Star Wars. Brother was even into it by now.  I am not sure how it came up again, but it did. I am embarrassed to even write this part. We are talking about it and I asked,

A: “Well which one would he watch?”

J: “Star Wars.”

A: “Yeah, I got that, but which one.”

J: “Star Wars.”

A; “WHICH Star Wars.”

J: “I don’t know what you mean. The one called Star Wars.”

A:….blank stare….

J: “Amanda, the first one, episode four, is called Star Wars.”

A: “Are the rest of them called something else?”

J: …..blank stare….head shake…exit room

Last Saturday afternoon, I was nursing a pretty bad headache and we decided to keep things pretty low key. John gave me one look, raised his eyebrows and grinned. Again, I had a headache and knew I would give into to whatever he was about to suggest.

“We could see if Evan wants to watch Star Wars…”

“But what would we do with Luke?”

“He can watch Planes in our bedroom.”

Which in my mind translated to, you can lay in bed with Luke while he is entertained by a screen for an hour and a half and don’t have to sit through Star Wars. WINNING!!!

Evan was stoked, did a victory dance, and counted down the minutes.

During the first 15 minutes Evan has about 20 questions. Who’s that guy? Where are they? Is he a good guy? Why does he look like that? Is he an alien? If you have been around Evan for more than half an hour, you know this is true. Finally John said, “Evan, just watch the movie.”

The last 20 minutes, Luke and I joined him. Luke wasn’t too interested in it, thank heavens, but enjoyed sitting on the couch with his guys.

 

So there it is. I let my 5.75 year old child watch Star Wars. First thing he said Sunday morning? “Daddy, can we watch Star Wars again?”