Last night, B-Dub came into the living room where we are ensconced, and he said, somewhat poutily, “I want a new stuffed animal.”
Our response, practically canned at this point, was: “Christmas is coming up soon, and also, you just got like, 300 stuffed animals in Hawaii. And, you have so many stuffed animals at this point that we took away your bed so we could and we replace it with a giant sack stuffed with stuffed animals. You’re good. Relax.”
He became more indignant, then. Generally, he’s tantrum-averse these days, but he still gets grumpy, as any five-year-old is wont to do. And he asserted, with a stomp of his foot, “I want a new stuffed animal.”
So began the classic parental speech of, blah blah blah, if you can’t appreciate the things you have, why would we get you new things and also perhaps you don’t want the things you already have, blah blah blah.
Panicked, he said, “So, I’m not getting any stuffed animals for Christmas?!”
“We don’t know,” we said, shrugging. “We’ll see.”
(Another popular parental phrase: We’ll see. It’s the two-word equivalent of kicking the can down the road so you don’t have to deal with the can right now.)
His little face screwed up tight, not with grief but with a special kind of mischievous anger, and he said, quite confidently: “If you take my Christmas presents away, I’m taking your Christmas presents away.” (Here, echoes of my own father on the phone with the power company. They had him overdue on a bill, which was not his way. He said he paid it. They said he didn’t. The power company told him they’d turn his power off, and his response was: “If you turn my power off, I’ll turn your power off.” A nearly impossible threat, and probably unwise. But it worked.)
Anyway, we laughed. He wondered why we were laughing, and we said:
“We already had our Christmas presents. Our trip to Hawaii was our present to us.”
This boggled him for about three seconds, obviously stymying his plans.
But then, a new plan stirred.
“I will take Hawaii out of your head,” he said.
“What?” we asked, uncertain what we just heard.
“I will take the memories of Hawaii away from you.”
Wh
uh
ah
Holy shit, what the actual fuck? That was an astonishing threat. That he actually said. We kind of warily acquiesced, ha ha, okay, and then he promptly went to his drawing table (where he draws pictures nigh-endlessly), and he began to draw for about fifteen minutes.
After those minutes had passed, he delicately tore something out of a piece of paper with pinching fingers, then signaled for our attention. We looked over, and he stood there with a piece of paper hanging above his head. On this piece of paper was a ghost. (More a Pac-Man style ghost in design, if you need the visual.) B-Dub held it above him, then he dramatically fake died and fell to the ground. With fluttering hand, he helped the the paper ghost arise from his supine body.
B-Dub said, the paper fluttering, “I AM NOW GHOST ME.”
And “ghost him” proceeded to go grab a couple more pieces of paper. The cut-out-ghost brought us these pieces of paper, which were drawings that clearly illustrated the ghost hovering over two people (the words Mommy and Daddy written over these two people), and around ‘Mommy’ and ‘Daddy’ were images of palm trees and the ocean and other Hawaiian icons. Those icons were all pointing, via arrow, toward the ghost. Then — then! — in the next image, the ghost exploded those things with fireballs. “GHOST ME IS IN YOUR HEAD, STEALING YOUR MEMORIES,” B-dub explained. “THEN I EXPLODE THEM WITH FIRE.”
I was impressed, and said so. He was having fun drawing it. He was channeling his art into this… well, this terrifying act of him somehow turning into a ghost that is able to get into our heads and steal our memories in order to burn them up, but I mean, what can I say? I loved it. He seemed happy and content, and was no longer angry, and now Mommy and Daddy have precious art we can hang on our fridge of our memories being stolen and burned by an angry ghost child.
Kids are fucking weird.
And I love it.
DonG18 says:
One of the best ever. Art Linkletter on acid.
December 6, 2016 — 8:29 AM
Kristen says:
I totally agree with your assessment. After about 40 seconds of non-stop knocking on my bedroom door at 3:46 this morning, I opened it. My 5 year-old stood in the hallway clutching his blankie and growled at me in this weird, gravelly, unlike-his-normal-Tavin-voice: “I hate sleeeep.”
December 6, 2016 — 8:30 AM
Ed Skinner says:
You got yourselves a Stephen King there, pal. Careful what you feed it.
December 6, 2016 — 8:37 AM
Rebecca Martin says:
When he’s older, you need to show him “Hush”, the episode of Buffy where everyone’s voices are stolen by “The Gentlemen. B-dub will then grow up to become a famous author, specializing in weird mind shit.
December 6, 2016 — 8:40 AM
Alecia Miller says:
I love this!
If you haven’t read The Dream Stealer, you should – this totally reminds of it. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6261472-the-dream-stealer
December 6, 2016 — 8:41 AM
ninamckissock says:
Hilarious. My son didn’t want to go to school, so he came downstairs wrapped in a sheet. He told me that Gandhi didn’t go to school and he was able to change the world, win a war…The history of Gandhi was used as an argument. Then I said that I’m Hitler and forced marched him upstairs to get dressed.
December 6, 2016 — 8:42 AM
Ellen Abernathy says:
Sounds like a great premise for your next story.
December 6, 2016 — 8:51 AM
Elaine Cunningham says:
Wonderful. Thanks for sharing this!
December 6, 2016 — 8:51 AM
Beth Turnage says:
Better get that kid admitted to Hogwarts ASAP, or he’ll be a danger to us all. 🙂
December 6, 2016 — 9:00 AM
annwjwhite says:
Don’t feed this child after midnight, and don’t blink. Not even once. I think your son has developed a very healthy way of dealing with his emotions. Instead of the dreaded tantrums, he’s able to sort and be creative. I hate to tell you this, but as a teacher I’m going to anyway. Have your son evaluated by his school and get him into a gifted learner program. He’s got as many of the signs as you do.
December 6, 2016 — 9:01 AM
jameshowden says:
Reminds me of 5-ish-year-old ‘David’ in JM Coetzee’s novel The Childhood of Jesus, who similarly (but less amusingly) weirds out his ‘parents’ in continuing displays of giftedness/obtusity/imagination/spoiled-snottiness/possible-magic. Still not clear in the novel so far whether David is the title’s ‘Jesus’, and I suppose it’s not yet clear what Force animates B-dub, either…
December 6, 2016 — 9:15 AM
Carol says:
Definitely a VERY imaginative child…sounds like another Stephen King in the making. I agree with Ann on getting your son evaluated. I would have been a little weirded out…and yet, oddly proud at the same time…ha ha.
December 6, 2016 — 9:20 AM
Shawn says:
Mr. Wendig: Thank you for this. I love your writing (columns, posts, blogs, whatevers [I am not sure of what they are, nor how the things are conventionally categorized]) on children and parenthood. Somehow I came across something you wrote about children and parenthood years ago. I think it made me laugh and cry and feel better and, most importantly, be a better parent. My own version of B-dub is amazingly, beautifully, frustratingly, maddeningly weird as well. On more than one occasion when I was worried about them, or the world around them, or how I was failing as a parent or a spouse-parent, your writing helped. I appreciate that, a lot. I haven’t had much to offer in return, but I have bought e-copies of a bunch of your books and will someday make time to read them. Thank you for this.
December 6, 2016 — 9:20 AM
antonykgooding says:
Hee hee brilliant. I’ve got two grandsons that come out with weird stuff like that. We will see, never worked on their mum when she was a nipper it would come back too bite us days or even weeks later re-interpreted as ‘But You Promised’ !!!! We remind her about that from time to time when her two get insistent about something.
December 6, 2016 — 9:22 AM
Jason P. says:
That’s frickin’ great! Hope Hawaii was a joyous time for you.
December 6, 2016 — 9:26 AM
Rob says:
The apple something something the tree.
December 6, 2016 — 9:33 AM
Jackie Lea Sommers says:
hahaha
December 6, 2016 — 1:44 PM
Claudia CV says:
So, a gothic writer in the family, huh?
December 6, 2016 — 10:49 AM
Elaine says:
Very impressive kid.
December 6, 2016 — 10:56 AM
Richard Rebelo Sanchez says:
Loved this Chuck. Your kid is a lot like you, a great imagination and a firm certainty about how the world should be. He sounds like a writer to me.
December 6, 2016 — 11:15 AM
C. J. Hartwell says:
I love this so much… I have no words…
December 6, 2016 — 11:19 AM
sburnside says:
I think it’s amazing that B-Dub elected to use creativity to address his frustration rather than anger. That’s both a testament to his ingenuity and to your shared parenting skills. You should write a book about that… ‘The Kick-Ass Parent: 1001 Ways to Raise an Ingenious, Precocious, Creative Child’
Heh, I’d buy it. Speaking of which, ‘Invasive’ is kicking six billion tiny ant’s feet worth of ass.
December 6, 2016 — 11:38 AM
Joan Enoch says:
Great!
December 6, 2016 — 11:53 AM
Michelle says:
Haha, that kid could write Axe Cop.
December 6, 2016 — 12:18 PM
Robin says:
Seems like his father’s child. One of the most stunning pieces of artwork that my daughter drew was a memorial for a dead baby bird that she found in our garden. It was on the creepy side, but the poetry she wrote and the image she illustrated showed an artistic maturity beyond her age of six. She then took it to school for show and tell and THAT got people talking.
December 6, 2016 — 12:51 PM
Julio says:
You got the next Lovecraft+Stephen King in training. In 10+ years he’s gonna be a writer 🙂
December 6, 2016 — 1:21 PM
Miri says:
Pssh, that’s selling him a little short! Give him two.
December 7, 2016 — 8:15 AM
anonymous says:
TOTALLY UNRELATED but I just remembered I wanted to give you this and see if you wanted to chew on it and/or make a post about it:
http://www.theestablishment.co/2016/11/17/why-the-publishing-industry-cant-get-disability-right/
I’d love to hear your thoughts about this. I’ve been meaning to write something about it, but I haven’t really gotten around to doing that.
December 6, 2016 — 2:19 PM
Kathy says:
Sounds like B-dub just gave you your next best seller. Reminds me “It’s a Good Life” from the Twilight Zone movie.
December 6, 2016 — 3:07 PM
Diane Cheryl Corson says:
Amazing story that you took the time to write and it reminded me of public education that sucks that wonderful imagination right out of your fantastical skull.
December 6, 2016 — 4:03 PM
M T McGuire says:
As someone who has been cycling to school, in the dark, with a boy in a full face crash helmet and skiing goggles, who is sleeping, currently, in a pair of field hockey shin guards, one on each shoulder, ‘because it’s like StarWars Storm Trooper armour.’ I understand completely. He is 8.
The weirdness isn’t going to end. Like you, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
December 6, 2016 — 4:14 PM
mannixk says:
Your son is pretty damn cool.
December 6, 2016 — 4:38 PM
Kate Pavelle says:
That’s awesome! He sounds like he’s a lot of fun. I relayed this to my husband, who says to tell you that Home Depot is selling stuffed bears the size of a medium human. That oughta do him 🙂
December 6, 2016 — 9:20 PM
Whitney Zahar says:
My son does a similar thing. He uses superheroes and animals he’s made up in his imagination to work through any aggressive tendencies. I’ve never been prouder.
December 6, 2016 — 9:38 PM
Kizzy Bass says:
Wow, what an imagination. Sounds like a great short story!
December 7, 2016 — 1:15 AM
Sue Clarke says:
I’m still a little puzzled by some of the things my kids have said to me when they were about 4 and 5 years old. For a long time my youngest would regularly tell us how he came from the people in the sky, where his real parents lived. His father was a farmer, but not a very good one so he had to do all the work,driving the tractor, milking the cows ect, while his mum who was very lazy, ate chocolates in bed; she also had a pet goat. My older boy, at the same age would explain that before he lived with us, he lived in ‘Babyland’ a special world populated by babies where you could do whatever job you wanted. He was a chef. Our middle child daughter would regularly survey the scene making a spy hole from her fingers, this was her special telescope which helped her see all the things we grown ups couldn’t. I truly believe that at this age they had a foot in two worlds. By the way, many thanks for this fantastic blog, it gives me a good kick in the bum when I need it.
Best
Sue x
December 7, 2016 — 6:29 AM
manymansionsbooks says:
Haha he rocks!
December 8, 2016 — 1:21 PM
Tess Lecuyer says:
Somehow, This made me think of you…..
Are you related?
http://adequateman.deadspin.com/the-2016-hater-s-guide-to-the-williams-sonoma-catalog-1789529261?utm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=Adequate_Man_facebook
December 8, 2016 — 3:06 PM
Rob says:
That’s awesome! I didn’t even make it through the first paragraph and I had to get over here and thank you for pointing it out!
December 8, 2016 — 3:38 PM
Wendy Christopher says:
Oh my god, B-Dub just wrote his first graphic novel! And then turned it into Performance Art!
December 8, 2016 — 4:49 PM
K R Green says:
Intriguing. It’s almost like the plot twist will be photographs of the holiday kept on memory sticks, computers, the cloud and physically printed out and his ghosts will gobble them all up.
December 11, 2016 — 11:04 AM