NYRA’s Jeff Odgis posted this on the forums today. It’s short, so I’ll repost it here.
Four-Year-Old Scares Off Armed Robbers
On Friday night a man forced his way into the home of Jennifer Long’s apartment in north Durham while a second man held a gun on her boyfriend outside. The robber forced Jennifer, another woman, and several children to lie on the floor.
Stevie, a four-year-old boy, slipped out of the room and changed into his Power Ranger costume. He re-entered the room waving a plastic sword and screaming, “Get away from my family!” The thief then fled with only some items from Jennifer’s purse.
Heather Evans, Stevie’s aunt quoted a counselor as saying that Stevie’s distinction between fantasy and reality needed to be improved. According the aunt Stevie believed he morphed into a Power Ranger. His little sister has experienced nightmares.
Stevie kicks ass. I mean, when we were little, wasn’t that our dream? That we could do more than just pretend to be heroes. This kid actually was one!
And, of course, the “well-meaning” adults can’t just be happy with this. No. There it was right there in that last paragraph.
“Oh, noes! Stevie can’t distinguish fantasy from reality!”
You idiot, he just saved your asses!
But, no, I see what you’re saying. He shouldn’t, you know, be brave when there’s danger. He should be good and just lie on the floor like a helpless victim. It’s bad that the robber was scared away by a four year old. They’d all be so much better if the robber had shot them all and taken every last thing in the house. Bad Stevie for not getting killed. How dare you save your family? 🙄
Four-year-old saves lives, and sure enough, there’s some problem with it. Wish these people would make up their minds. On one hand, they’re bitching that kids are growing up too fast and aren’t being kids very long, but then you have this, where pretending he’s a Power Ranger is a pretty damn good example of being a kid, and they bitch that he can’t distinguish fantasy from reality! WTF?
And another thing. What makes them so sure he can’t? Kids are a hell of a lot more realistic than adults like to believe. When I was in elementary school, sure, I liked to believe I had the strength and powers the characters in my cartoons had, and would now and then try to act it out. But you know what? Never once did I seriously believe I had those powers. I wished I had. I liked to believe I did or would someday, but in reality, I knew I couldn’t. My parents and other adults probably thought I thought the fantasy stuff was real, but what the hell do they know?
Not entirely sure of the relevance of his sister’s nightmares either. Is she therefore doing a better job of being a kid than her brother?
POWER RANGERS FTW!