By: CHRISTINE AIKEN
Columnist
aikenc@umail.iu.edu
How old will my child be before I expose them to “Star Wars” or “Super Mario Brothers?”
I was somewhere between eight and ten when I got to experience those things. That is simply depriving a child of true joy in life.
Let me say that I fully intend on letting my kid be a kid and spend several years absorbed in Disney movies and working on the building blocks of learning so that he or she can grow up to be whimsical and smart. These are two qualities that I highly value.
Once that child is old enough to speak in and understand full sentences, however, it will know the ways of the force and the joy of finding a one-up mushroom.
Now, I definitely won’t force my favorite things on my offspring if my entertainment preferences are not passed on genetically. I might find a dark corner and gently weep in privacy for a little bit.
After all, I did not inherit my love of sci-fi and video games and all things generally nerdy from my parents. I just was lucky enough to develop better taste than they had.
Now I admit, as a child, I did have interests that I question today. But, I am willing to admit, they were entertaining at the time. Yes, I owned Jem and the Holograms dolls and religiously watched the cartoon that inspired them. I played the Girl Talk board game with my friends, which was essentially an official version of Truth or Dare. Thankfully, I grew out of all of that.
Movies like “Star Wars,” “The Goonies” and “The Princess Bride” are iconic and should be seen by every human being at some point in their lives. Having that amazing sense of wonder that children tend to have linger with you into adulthood is wonderful and was made possible by these amazing films I watched growing up and the fun, happy video games I used to play.
I will end this by saying that I fully intend on having a “Star Wars” marathon before the new movie comes out next month. My unborn child may not be able to understand what it hears as I sit there and watch these films, but if his or her first word is ‘Ewok’ or ‘Jedi’ then I have them off to a great start.
