The Crushes of Youth

My 6 year-old son has developed an intense liking for My Little Pony. Now, I don't have any kind of problem with this; it's a really cute little cartoon and the messages & values the writers manage to infuse into the characters and episodes are really kind of nice. They impart good, common sense ideals about friendship most of the time, and I'm good with that. Moreover, we have a non-traditional household, so my son wanting to watch a bunch of pretty ponies frolic around isn't all that surprising to me, or any of the other adults who live here.

However, while we were all sitting in the living room watching an episode of said cartoon the other night, my son shared how he was hopelessly in love with the character of Twilight Sparkle. He likes all the ponies; they're very nice, and very pretty. But, he informed us, when he watches Twilight, he gets a funny feeling in his tummy, and it makes him happy all over just to look at her. He wants to watch her all the time, because she's the prettiest, and the smartest, and she's a unicorn, and she does magic. And of course, we mustn't forget, she reports directly to Princess Celestia, which makes her also the most important.

I pointed out to him that the other ponies all had very good qualities, which he recognized. However he was quite adamant. None of them made him feel like Twilight Sparkle.

Now while this was going on, his two daddies sat and listened, and finally one of them came and sat next to him, and told him that the way he felt about Twilight was fine. It was a good feeling, and he understood. He felt the same way about Batman when he was my son's age. He launched into a quite detailed little story about watching the old Batman TV show, and how he had a terrific crush on Adam West as a kid, right down to needing a cape and cowl just like Batman's to sleep in at night.

My son solemnly listened to all this, looked at his dad, looked at his other dad, and said, "So that's why you spend so much time playing Arkham Asylum!"

I tried very hard not to laugh. While my partner was attempting to salvage some dignity, my son, still with the serious face, put his little hand on his dad's arm and said, "Twilight is prettier than Batman. His cape is cool, though."

Out of the mouths of babes...