The Beheadings of the Bears

A few weeks ago, I awoke to my two year old son, Aiden, screaming, "DIE NOW!!! AYAH!!!" Curious as to what was on the receiving end of his victory cry, I snuck out of my bedroom quietly, and slowly opened his door. On the floor before him was a teddy bear, named Patches, that I had passed on to him, one that I had since I was 11. In Aidens' tiny child hand was a sword that had a button on it, that when pushed, it made a loud CHA-CHING sound. I stood there at the entrance of his room, enthralled and a little horrified as he raised the sword above his beautiful blond head.

The sword came down, arching into Patches' neck, were, if he had been alive, and the sword real, the bears head would have lopped off, just like in the movie "Brave heart", and "13th Warrior". I stood there shocked as he screamed "DIE NOW!!!" yet again, wondering were he had watched or learned something so gruesome. I instantly knew the answer. My husband.

I've told my husband more times than I can count how I don't want our very impresionable son watching violent movies. But when I am out of the house, or busy in the house, or otherwise engaged, Chris tends to sneak in movies such as "Shaun of the Dead" as well as "13th Warrior" and "Kingdom of Heaven" As often as I scold him for watching these movies in front of Aiden, he, of course, ignores me.

When my husband got home from work that day, I asked him what movies he had watched with Aiden recently, and he sheepishly answered with an interesting list: Shaun of the Dead, a few other Zombie based movies, and of course the before mentioned 13th Warrior.

I told him of what our brilliant young son was caught doing, and he just laughed. He thought it was great. Said we were preparing him early for the military life. What he doesn't know is Aiden isn't going into the army.

Aiden continues to behead his bears. I've told him he's hurting them, I've hidden his swords, Chris just brings them back out for their daily sword fights. I've given up. Patches will just have to suffer.