As a parent, I feel it is my job to gently guide my beloved offspring in life, so I try not to force my own personal tastes on them. In one area of my life I have been especially careful about this – Star Wars. Sadly, most of my treasures have been sold off or given away as my need for space (and money) demanded. Even so, I haven’t actually hidden my passion for the saga from my children – they have certainly found the remaining DVDs, videos, books and other collectibles on their explorations of their environment (not to mention my childhood blanket which now covers the window in the room my sons share and the matching pillow I try to make comfortable when I am called in for nightmare duty). Maybe I was planning to hold off until they reach the age I was when it took over my life. I’m not sure I would have held out that long, but certainly the films are not age-appropriate for babies. But I did start a little collection of Young Jedi training books from Episode one. Not exactly a hand-me-down lightsabre from a long lost parent, but it’s a start.
One day I was with the then-three-year-old Beloved Offspring #1 in Blockbuster. The store was running a Star Wars promotion, complete with a six-foot cardboard standup of Vader’s mask. I was headed out the door when I heard that squeaky little voice pipe up. “Look, mommy, Star Wars!” For a moment I was more frozen than Han Solo inside that block of carbonite. And yes, I was very proud. But this had happened without my input…so how exactly had this happened? He told me that he had seen some Star Wars toys at school, courtesy of Burger King. In fact, his friends at school like Star Wars a lot, and did I know there was a golden robot in it? Yes, I knew. And did I know Star Wars (Darth Vader) was a little scary and did mean things? Yes, I knew that, too, and a thousand other little bits of trivia that would mean nothing to a three-year-old so I shut up.
Fast forward. Now Beloved Offspring #1 is four and a half. One night he hit me with this, in a conspiratorial whisper: Mom, did you know that Anakin is Skywalker’s father? Yes, I did. I left out the part about waiting for three years for that little cliffhanger to be resolved (thanks a lot, George Lucas!). He launched into a full-body reenactment of how Anakin fought the “Roger Roger” robots. I wished for popcorn. When he was finished – or exhausted, I’m not sure which – we had a nice little talk about why people (Anakin/Vader) do mean things, so that was a nice little morals lesson (thanks a lot, George Lucas – sincerely this time). The Force is definitely with him.
