superheroes and beef

My kids have gotten into super heroes. Yes. I have no idea how it happened. I did not promote it. But they have caught the bug and there is no going back. I cannot say that I have a problem with the idea itself. I mean, having "superman" and "bat girl" running around the house chasing bad guys is as fun as playing "house" or any other imaginary game. And my "spider woman" and "iron man" are very creative dressers! (see the picture!) At times the creativity even goes further as in playing imaginary superheroes. Last night Kaspar was "shiny-man" with a list of super powers that never ended, including all the super powers of all super-heroes know and recognized by a 5 year old. It's hard to keep up with the two of them and their games!

However, I have a beef with the violence it promotes. All that comes with the territory super-heroes is in one way or another violence promoting! All the shooting and fighting in the cartoons... The video games (even the ones for 4-6 years old) are about shooting, stealing, blowing things up or catching bad guys with guns and bombs and such. I just don't like that part of our culture.

I'm not one of those parents that pull all the plugs and tell their kids "You will have none of this, no matter what all the other kids are doing!" I know that living in a large city, where all the other kids are watching these violent cartoons and playing the games, it is pretty much impossible to avoid them coming into contact with this culture. And being forcefully deprived of it would just make them rebel. I speak from experience :-) But I struggle every single day with the dilemma of how much to allow? How much to deny? How to explain it to them? How to show them a different way, a different view...

Parenting is just so bloody HARD!

fun and not so fun stuff

Argh. We have been sick again. It seems like at least one of us (adults included) have been sick every single day since mid December. We seem to be passing some bug around from one another. I hate it. The dreaded SICK month of January. But February just arrived and I'm hopeful that with this month comes some relief.

However, on a happier note... I made a pig costume for a play at the kids Latvian language school while sitting on the couch and nursing my very sore throat. Stella loved it! And I kind of loved it, too. It was fun making a costume from scratch. I had not done something like this in years. And the best part is that we get to keep it, now that the play is over and done with.

Today is a snow day, but since the daycare was open, I am at work. Catching up with work that has piled up during my sick leave. I would much rather be outside watching the snow fall!