Under the Influences

In a recent post for Lifetime Moms, I mentioned that the issue of my son having “bad influences” – i.e., influences that aren’t his parents – wasn’t one I was expecting to encounter for a while. I expected him to be primarily under the influence of me for the next few years.

And then he met Xander.

And Xander ruined my son’s childhood.

A few weeks ago, Detective Munch was playing with some of his Star Wars figures, and things got a little awkward. (And no, it had nothing to do with Luke and Leia. Or R2 and Threepio. Or Han and Chewbacca. Or Jabba and Leia. Or any Ewoks. You pervert.)

Suddenly, in the midst of playing pretend, he looks up at me and says, “Do ya know…” (“Do ya know?” is his go-to conversation starter. He likes to keep people informed; never mind the fact that what follows is typically nonsense.) “Do ya know? Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father!” star wars, children, kids, family, parenting, fatherhood, empire strikes back, bad influence, discipline, dads, moms, pop culture, movies

Sorry to hop franchises here, but I fucking HULKED OUT.

It’s difficult to keep a 35-year-old plot twist a secret – especially when the Star Wars universe has expanded into prequels and cartoons and onto clothing and bags and is everywhere all the time! – but I’m trying. Detective Munch hadn’t seen frame one of a single Star Wars movie or cartoon at this point (I finally showed him the first movie last weekend), but somehow someone a four-year-old – who probably hasn’t seen the movies himself – spoiled them for him.

You don’t really expect strange four-year-olds to cause problems in your life. Your own four-year-old, definitely, but other people’s? That’s their cross to bear. And yet here comes Xander, getting all up in my business. In more ways than one.

His lack of spoiler alerts aside, we learned from my son’s teacher – in the midst of a particularly intense spurt of obnoxious behavior (that has since mostly subsided) – that Xander had recently been seated near Detective Munch. Suddenly it seemed to be no coincidence that his vocabulary began featuring new potty-based words, and his behavior began featuring a lot more hitting and talking back.

(Disclaimer: Xander isn’t an actual kid. He’s a fictional composite of a handful of my son’s friends and classmates, none of whom actually had parents who loved “Buffy”/hated their son enough to name him Xander. Not even I would do that, and I love “Buffy” and hate my son!)

Kids will be kids; they have a long way to go before their behavior becomes solidified enough that it causes long-term problems. Besides, they’re learning any bad behavior elsewhere, and it’s nothing too crazy to begin with; they’re simply trying stuff out, like all kids. So I’m loathe to blame Xander and friends for anything. Like my son, they’re not even five!

star wars, children, kids, family, parenting, fatherhood, empire strikes back, bad influence, discipline, dads, moms, pop culture, movies, buffy, eliza dushku
Finally, an excuse to post a picture of her!

And yet, he’s not even five and outside influences are already becoming a problem for me. My brother is trying to make him a Yankees fan. He asks Mom and Buried to put on her Pandora “show-tunes” channel. Netflix has him preferring the Avengers to Superman, and yesterday he told me was never going to like beer! Am I losing control of my boy already?

Not if I can help it. I can’t force him to follow in my footsteps, but I can do my best to delay the inevitable stray.

So watch out, Xander. You’re not only messing with my son’s enjoyment of one of the biggest plot twists – and beloved franchises – in film history, you’re endangering my role as his primary bad influence.

If anyone is going to be ruining my kid’s childhood, it’s me.


Print page

3 thoughts on “Under the Influences

  1. It’s odd how outside influences affect our kids so early, especially friends and teachers, I’m forever arguing with my littlest because she has been given wrong information etc. I just dread the day she is told someone doesn’t exist.

  2. It happens really quickly. The temptation to lock yourself in an isolationist bubble is pretty strong some days. We’ve got 2, so when the eldest picks up a bad word and brings it home, the youngest starts spouting it 5 seconds later.

    Then there’s all the bad words they have picked up from me. And their mother. But mostly me….

    But seriously, star wars spoilers? Dude. Not cool.

  3. Pingback: Premature Parenting Challenges - Dad and Buried

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.