海角大神

The hunt for Ewoks: How screen time encourages imaginative kids

Despite the warnings about excessive screen time for kids, one mom realizes that her sons flourish as they weave characters they see on television, in movies, and in video games into their own imaginative play.

鈥淜eep your eyes open. This is where the Ewoks live.鈥澛�

The hour drive outside of San Francisco, shrouded in clouds along windy roads, has inspired my husband to say this sentence at least a dozen times.聽 I鈥檓 keeping my mouth shut except to shove in roasted almonds.

There鈥檚 no parking when we finally arrive at Muir Woods National Park so we have quite a hike just to get to the entrance.聽 Hubby pushes the toddler in the stroller and I鈥檓 left with 5 year-old Cole. The air is moist and I explain the weird green stuff on trunks of trees as we pass by鈥攎oss, something he鈥檚 never seen in the desert where we live.

鈥淢om, are Ewoks real?鈥�

I keep up my pace and try to stay casual. 鈥淲hat do you think?鈥�

鈥淚 think they maybe aren鈥檛 real.鈥澛� There鈥檚 a question in Cole鈥檚 voice, like he鈥檚 trying on this idea.

We鈥檝e been down the road of pretend versus reality before, what with all the talk of superheroes and such around our house.

鈥淚 think you are right.聽Ewoks are just in the movies.聽 But it would be cool if they were real, right?鈥�

Cole鈥檚 silent for a while, thinking. He doesn鈥檛 bite his lip, but sets his mouth just so, raised a bit on the left side.

鈥淚 just saw an Ewok鈥檚 ear back there!鈥�

By the time we catch up to Dad and brother, Cole鈥檚 spotted an additional Ewok arm and one full body of the diminutive hairy creatures. The redwoods are spaced out with smaller trees between and everything is lush and alive.聽

It does indeed look with we are in the Ewok forest of 鈥淪tar Wars.鈥�

Conspiratorially, Cole whispers to me after reporting his sighting to his dad. 鈥淲e can still pretend, right?鈥�

I nod in agreement, in on the secret and agreeing to keep up pretenses for his father.

Cole鈥檚 imagination is more than I can fathom.聽 In the space of an hour he can be a cowboy, a Ninja, a doctor, a dinosaur, a scientist, superhero, and a dog.聽 Sometimes with costumes, often without.聽

鈥淲ow, you are such an amazing Kung Fu master!鈥� I鈥檒l say when Cole sneaks up and scares me.

鈥淚鈥檓 not a Kung Fu master, I鈥檓 Spiderman.鈥� The disdain is clear; how could I not know the exact form of his stealth?

Cole thinks of things I鈥檝e never wondered about:聽What do plants eat?聽Which is the best planet?聽Which rocks float?聽He loves life.聽He loves his inner world and outer existence equally.聽Not much makes me happier than eavesdropping on him playing: by himself, with his younger brother, with a friend.聽

I don鈥檛 do Play-doh; I can鈥檛 make myself.聽I can make animal noises, but I don鈥檛 get into character.聽I鈥檓 not a good imaginer, despite my best efforts.聽 I鈥檓 learning to make due. I can ask good questions and not reveal too much unbelief.聽

I hear a lot of worry from parents and bloggers and pundits about media sucking the souls from our children, taking away their time for creative play. For us, this hasn鈥檛 been the case. Cole and his brother are quite savvy when it comes to Angry Birds, Curious George, Luke Skywalker and friends, and the adventures of Indiana Jones.聽

These characters, and others of their own invention, live in my home like visitors, joining us on walks and outings. I appreciate them, though not all the time, for the companionship they give my wee sons and their busy minds.

Anakin and George, dashing adventurers, and even bumbling Inspector Gadget, help my boys dive into imaginary worlds.聽While building with Legos they'll do voices for the aliens who are attacking the Death Star, for example. Lest you worry about excessive screen time, I'd like to point out that we also play with dinosaurs and play "house" just as kids did before the advent of color television. 聽

I think of media characters as an add-on to already busy minds; by carefully monitoring who gets invited into our lives, they become part of the parenting team. They teach loyalty, adventure, curiosity 鈥� lessons I'm trying to convey, but in a much cooler way than I can.

This parenting gig is hard, especially with kids who think very differently than I do.聽I hate magic and pretend, and I did even as a kid, which makes me sad when I think of it now.聽

My boys and the universe of possibility that lives in their heads is one of the most beautiful aspects of raising them.聽Pretend is awesome.聽It provides practice for real life without the mundane interfering.聽I could probably use a little more time acting out my own stealth ninja moves to see how it builds my own middle-aged confidence.