Den of the Beastly Bear
Hi Folks!
When Princess Bear was born, some 22 years ago now I was delighted to be the father of a daughter!
Some guys try to turn their daughters into Tomboys, not me. Not me!
I had grown up as the only son, with two sisters so I was well acquainted with "girlie" things and all that entailed.
I spent hours playing dollies, having tea, watching Barney or whatever else my darling daughter wanted.
She in turn wanted to be involved in anything I liked.
One of the shows that I was addicted to back then was "Highlander: The Series" starring Adrian Paul as Duncan MacLeod, an immortal forced to fight others of his kind to survive.
They were good vs evil battles with the winner beheading his opponent to steal their power, thereby growing stronger. Kaitlin loved it! Duncan MacLeod was her first "crush"!
Now before you all lose your minds that I let my young daughter watch this with me, let me just clarify.
There were big sword fights but the actual beheadings were never shown, good always triumphed in the end.
It was the '90s not as much sex and violence on TV.
I'm also a bit of a geek...I admit it! SciFi, superheroes, comic books...love/d them all!!!
When I was a kid, I read the "X-men" comic books.
So when they did an animated series for "kids", I tested the waters with Katie...and she loved it! Great for Dad, less "Rugrats" and "Rocko's Modern life" something I could enjoy too!
Katie's favorite was Rogue, I was more a Wolverine fan...though he was not one of the originals from my youth.
So in 2000 when the "X-men" movie was released Katie asked "Can we go see it Daddy?"
So a Daddy/Daughter date was planned.
It opened in July, so Katie was out of school and I was working 3rd. shift, so with much anticipation I stayed up so we could hit a matinee!
We went to the local multiplex, my 8 year old daughter and I...
Now the movie was rated PG-13, but I figured "She's been watching X-men with me for a couple years, she's familiar with the characters and the whole story, she'll be fine..."
So we got our soda's and popcorn, found the "ultimate spot of viewing pleasure" in the theater and took our seats.
The movie opens, with a young Rogue and her boyfriend. Rogues power awakens when she kisses her boyfriend and nearly kills him as she saps his strength and life force. Discovering she's a mutant freaks her out, her parents are antimutant, so she runs away from home.
Fast forward a couple months she's in a bar in Northern Canada were Logan AKA Wolverine has entered a "toughman" contest. Logan of course wins the contest, but when it's time to collect his money the guys running the show suspect him of being a mutant.
They refuse to pay, and a fight breaks out. Maybe 15 min. into the movie...
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Little trails of tears from her eyes...
"Katie honey, what's the matter?" I asked.
"Nothing Daddy..."
"Honey is this too scary for you?"
She nodded yes, and the tears started in earnest...ugly cry face and all.
"We don't have to stay, you want to go? It's OK if you do..." I told her.
She nodded again, so I snatched her up and made my apologies to the other patrons as we made our way out of the row we were in and out of the theater.
We sat on a bench out in the lobby while she calmed down, ate a little popcorn...sipped a little pop.
When she was ready, I told her that it was OK to be scared and that she could have just told me...
"But I knew how much you wanted to see it..." She said.
I said "I wanted to see it WITH YOU, if you didn't like it we leave, just that simple! So what do you wanna do?"
"We're not going home?" She asked surprised
"Absolutely not! We're having a Daddy/Daughter day.
The movie was a bust, so what ELSE would you like to do?" I told her.
"Well....I'm kinda hungry..."
"Lunch it is then, pic a place...anywhere you want."
So we ended up at Max and Erma's where I paid 4 prices for chicken strips, but it's where she wanted to go. That, and I felt like crap over the movie...
After lunch we went to a toy store and looked around, we didn't get anything just looked and got birthday ideas.
I wanted to make sure she knew, it was spending time with her...not the movie that was important to me.
In the end it was a success, our day out.
She's home with me today, no work for her and I don't go in til 3...maybe we'll go out for lunch, relive a little Daddy/Daughter day!
Be Well!
Beastly Bear
Awwww! Poor kid! I remember when my cousin's mom & grandmother took her to see Jaws the summer it came out, 1975. She's 6 mos. younger than me, so we were both about 10. She had to be taken out of the theatre when she got sick to her stomach. And the thing that made her sick? Not the head that floated out of the sunken ship, not the shark attacks, not the ominous music, but when Capt. Quint was talking about when his ship sank during the war and the sharks were eating the sailors.
ReplyDeleteI felt so bad JoJo...it killed me she was not going to say anything because she knew I wanted to see it! Then thought I'd be mad and take her home...
DeleteI made sure I made the rest of the day special!
These days my kids aren't really freaked out by much but back in those days you just didn't see stuff like that on TV and there weren't videos to watch at home. So I am sure I would have been freaked out too. It sounds like you had a lovely Daddy daughter day. ♥
ReplyDeleteI really had no idea she would react like that...I mean she had watched all kinds of stuff with me that I didn't think this would bother her at all! Perhaps it was the intensity of the big screen instead of our 27" TV that made it seem that much worse to her and made her scared?
DeleteAw.. And she went just for you.. How sweet is that?? Yay for lunch at Max & Erma's. I wonder if my daughter waited on you. :)
ReplyDeleteCould be....the waitress was cute...and I tipped well!
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