Minding my own business yesterday and half watching/listening to the local news I hear “Do images from Mars show life on the Red Planet? Take a look and decide for yourself.”
Thinking I had lost my mind I glanced up at the tv to see THIS.
Ummm. Ok.
Now none of this would be a big deal except my son is really, really, really, really into Mars and the Mars Rovers.
Spirit and Opportunity are household names around here and Count Waffles, at not yet 5-years old, is convinced he will one day retrieve his buddies from Mars. He’s serious too. He also thinks his Mom gets to go with him, but that’s another story.
So when I saw the images on the news I debated showing our budding astronaut. Here’s the problem though-he’s afraid of aliens.
He has nightmares about them and they totally freak him out.
I didn’t post the pic here because I’m afraid he’ll see it-that’s how bad he MIGHT freak.
So I stopped myself from showing him these rocks that look like a person, because I thought he would cry or scream or be convinced there are aliens on Mars and we all need to run and hide.
Does that make me a hover-mom?
Should I let him see them and explain they are rocks?
I KNOW he’ll be totally fascinated by the photo and the shot from Spirit (which we’ve look at a million times anyway) but I’m so afraid I’ll add to his fears.
I’m a big geek, aren’t I?
We’re going to watch the Disney documentary Roving Mars. Again.
I need a hook up at JPL. Or something.
Done babbling now.
This picture has been a topic of some discussion on Twitter today… ask @geosteph for the antidote! Seriously, though, kids iconise their fears; I’m sure parents do too. I find that my three-year-old responds to me showing him something and explaining it – that way his imagination can’t run riot. For the time being, anyway 🙂
Then again, sometimes it pays to be silent. There are plenty other pics for him to look at. My husband, who is not an American and always gets our “sayings” a little wrong, always says “silver” (I know, silence is golden) when I am about to open my big mouth. There is wisdom in that.
I don’t think you’re being a hover-mom. Those pictures creeped me out. If you were my Mom I’d hope you woulda warned me. 🙂
Why scare the crap out of him for nothing?
Unless of course you’re like me and you like to provoke the crazy reactions…
So have you decided what to do yet?
If you REALLY want to frighten him, just hand him the business section of the paper.
I laughed at that picture because I thought the figure looked remarkably like the still shot of the famous video of bigfoot at Walnut Creek (the one where bigfoot is walking away and looking back at the photographer). That’s why we can’t find bigfoot…..he lives on Mars!
I don’t have the answer for you, but I will tell you that when I was a kid I was also absolutely TERRIFIED of aliens and my parents showed me “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” thinking it would make me feel better because those aliens were nice.
UH-UH! Nightmares for weeks!!
No it does not make you a hover mom. This is an age where they have a lot of nightmares. NO reason to add to them.
You are definitely NOT a hover mom! I wonder if he would even see the “man” or whatever in the picture unless you pointed it out though. The pictures are pretty amazing and if he’s into it then he would love them. Is he going to think the rock is a man without some coaching?