Every Friday around noon, when the weather is good, I go on an adventure walk with my son. An adventure walk is where he can choose whatever he wants to wear in the whole world and wears it, and he chooses what he wants me to wear. Nearly 100% of the time, he chooses a superhero costume (complete with mask and shield) or a Transformer outfit for him, and for me he chooses a Halloween costume, one of my running costumes, or a formal dress. Once he chose my Elsa running outfit from a race I did at Disney World, which comes complete with rhinestone cape. Why? "You look beautiful in it and that's what you wore when you won your race and came in number one!" (FYI, I came in at the bottom third, but he'll tell you I won). Another time he chose my old prom dress. Why? "Because it's so beautiful and you never wear it." Another time, he chose some sparkle sequin fabric I had set aside for a running costume, told me to wear it as a cape, and picked my Minnie ears with a bridal veil. Why? Because "It looks like you're magic and on an adventure!"
When you ask him why he chooses these things, he'll almost always tell you it's because it's the outfits that make me look "the most beautiful" or they "look special" or because I wouldn't wear them any other time "unless you are at Disney World" and he wants me to "have fun."
Then we walk from our house to the park, in our costumes, along a major road, looking totally ludicrous... But he just doesn't care because he thinks he's living out an adventure. His smile is so wide and his eyes are so bright, you'd think it was Christmas. We walk to drop some coins in the fountain (for "the angels"). Then we walk past the unassisted senior living facility, where there are always lots of senior citizens out, and give out cookies or Little Debbie cakes. From there, we head to the playground at the community center, then finally around 1, we end up at a local pizza place where we have a slice of pizza before walking back home. Along the way, we'll get smiles, laughs, confused looks, horn honks, and lots of attention, almost all of it for my son. Strangers telling him he looks amazing. People act excited that they met the "real (superhero name here)." Once a guy in a truck pulled over, jumped out of the truck, and shook his hand and thanked him "for his service" in keeping the town safe. He was so ridiculously proud of himself. Sometimes the senior citizens ask for his autograph. Runners high five him. Honestly, it's pretty cool.
One day, when he was dressed like Bumblebee and I was dressed in an adult dress that looks like
Optimus Prime and Mickey ears with a plastic Halloween Optimus Prime mask (that he got me as a gift), we were stopped by a guy who writes for the local paper. He wanted to take a picture of us and use it for the front page of the paper with a little caption. I said no thanks, that I was doing this to have fun with my son, and I felt like taking a picture along with a blurb would take away from that. He said "But don't you want to show other parents things they can do with their kids to make them feel special?" And again, I said no because if you have to be told to do this to make your kids feel special, you're missing the point. You don't do stuff like this because somebody said it's a great idea, you do stuff like this because you know your kid would think it was a great idea. This is about Optimus Prime and Bumblebee taking a walk together, not me looking for a platform to tell parents how to bond with their kids.
That's how I feel about this video.
If you know to do this, you don't need to tell others to do it too. If you need to be told to do it, you're not getting the point. If you're doing this and feel the need to tell others to do the same, it's not about what you're doing to make your kids feel special, it's what you're doing to make yourself seem like a good parent to other parents.
(((Hannah)))
