Friday, November 12, 2010

73 Months


Halloween has come to casawex and Lucas is having mixed feelings about it.

About a month ago, after we went to Sea World and saw the Shamu show, Lucas insisted that he wanted to be an orca whale for Halloween. We thought that it was a great idea since we like to make the kids' costumes instead of just buying them at the store. The orca idea was one that we could handle without getting too elaborate with the technical side of things. Christina did her mind maneuverings and figured out that all we would need was a black hoodie and some white material to sew on the outside for the patterns. Then Quinnie said that she wanted to be a pink shark and, bingo, we were ready to go to the thrift store to look for a couple of hoodies.

Every year, at Lucas's school, they have a Halloween costume parade for the second grade and below. It's a rather modest affair out on the blacktop, mostly for the parents to come and see all the little ones in their outfits. Supposed to be cute, right? Well, this year turned out to be a bit annoying. First thing in the morning, Lucas decided that he didn't want to wear his costume during the parade, even though he had tried it on at home and said that he liked it. We had to fight him and for the first time since he began riding the bus in the morning, he wouldn't ackowledge us as it pulled away from the curb (normally he has to wave at us about twenty times). When we finally arrived at his school to the scene of the parade it was pretty obvious that Lucas wasn't happy about participating. I perceived that he thought that his costume wasn't cool enough. All the boys were ninjas and all the girls were fairies or princesses, all store bought of course.

Christina and I often try to give our children a different perspective on the world. We could have just bought him some walmart thing and he probably would've been happier at school but we just can't do it. For us, halloween is about using your imagination and creating a new persona for the day. It's too boring to just go out and buy one when you can create it out of various fragments. It's more interesting to use the creative part of your brain, as well as develop a little work ethic. It makes sense to us but we are a little bit more crunchy and granola than your typical parent.

So, Lucas ended up wearing his un-cool costume that was really cooler than most of the rest and definitely more appropriate than half of them. Most of the girl costumes were child versions of what their parents probably wear, sexy-this and sexy-that, except these kids are six, sixy-fairy and sixy-princess, completely stupid. We even saw a little boy who was dressed up as a pimp. Yeah, it's hard to imagine having that conversation around the dinner table.

"What do you want to be for Halloween this year, Johnny?"
"Oh, I don't know. A ninja, maybe."
"How about someone who abuses women for a living?"
"OMG! That's fucking hilarious, Honey!"

It was mostly just a complete disaster. The parade was chaotic and no one seemed to be paying attention to anyone else and the sun was baking down on everybody and by the end of it, Christina and I had quickly come to the conclusion that this year was going to be the last time we forced Lucas to go through that debacle.

Later in the day, Lucas was running around the house in his costume with a happy smile upon his face. Apparently it was just the whole peer pressure school environment aspect that was hindering his enjoyment of the holiday. Welcome to the scholastic community. Where we have very little control of how he's being influenced and where his education of adapting to the idiocracy has begun. Once he was back in his comfortable abode where he's allowed to express himself in every reasonable way possible, Lucas had transformed back into the delightful child that we love so much.

Nanna nd Nonno came over and they left with the kids to wander the neighborhood with all of the other ghouls and goblins and witches and fairies. They came back with bags full of candy, which Christina and I immediately helped ourselves to, and then they drifted off to sleep with pumpkin giants and skeleton bones dancing in their heads. It was a Halloween to remember and another moment in parenthood where we learned the lesson of humility. Sometimes our children know a lot more about the tenor of our environment than we may ever understand and when they turn away with such disdain, it's probably better to just take a short vacation for awhile.

Labels: , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home