Mean

Throughout the Christmas season, we've obviously been discussing the Christmas story, and all of the major players in that story. I think most kids are awed by the whole idea and love to talk about Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, the angels, and even the animals who were present at the manger. However, most kids probably don't share Will's favorite character: King Herod. Yes, that's right...somehow, Will identifies with the ONLY mean guy in the whole Christmas story...the guy who wants to kill baby Jesus. And, Will can tell you all about this: "King Herod is MEAN. He is so mean and he wants to KILL the baby Jesus! But the wise men tricked him and didn't tell him where baby Jesus was."

So, at least he knows that Herod is a mean character and isn't aspiring to be like him, but STILL. Is it okay that my child likes the mean guy? In fact, it seems that he is fascinated by the villains in a lot of the stories he hears. In the movie about Rudolph, Will's into the snow monster. In Madagascar II, he wants to talk about the hunters who try to shoot the lion. Based on my extensive psychological knowledge (hey--my mom's a psychologist and my sister's a psychiatry resident, so surely some of it has rubbed off on me), I think Will may just be trying to deal with "mean stuff" and evil characters in a safe way. It's easy to be brave when the bad guys are just on TV or in a story.

Or, maybe I'm just rationalizing. But, I hope that he can see that it's not fun to be the bad guy and that these are not characters that you should emulate. He does like to point out (as he learned from one of his Bible stories), that King Herod died and didn't get to kill Jesus. So, at least that's something. But, I think I'll still keep an eye on this behavior.