The What If Moratorium

Our son Brandon is almost 9 years old. For the past several years, he (like many kids) has been enamored with super heroes. In fact, since the Incredibles movie came out, we have endured nearly daily, if not hourly, questions concerning super heroes. It started out "What if you were a super hero?" "What kind of powers would you have?" And so on and so forth.

Today on our way to meet his dad for lunch he ventured into the legal liability of super hero-ism and asked about what would happen if he just decided to start fighting crime. I launched into the civil ramifications of fighting crime while not being properly deputized and trained in CLEET-certified subjects and how it would just not be in his best interest to fight crime without a badge. He said, "But what if I just did it?" And at that moment I had a terrific idea. Terrific for me at least. I told Brandon that he could NOT ask me any more questions that started with "what if". My intent was to get him to think for himself and to stop asking me endless questions to which I really can't give a good answer.

He was quiet for a minute. And then he said, "If I were a super hero, I would help dad find a parking spot at the mall." FINALLY! A creative, independent thought!