My son, science and N Sync

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So, I’m a single dad who only gets to see his son on the weekends. Two weekends ago, I got lucky. My ex had business on Friday at the NOAA Detachment here so she drove the 7 1/2 hours with my son (Her first time. I’m forced to make the drive each weekend if I want to see him.)

I try to plan new and different things for me and my son to do. If it’s educational all the better, 'cause it’ll interest me so much more than escorting him to yet another Pokeman movie.

The Virginia Air and Space Museum just opened a “Federation Science” hands-on exhibit with a mock-up of the Enterprise’s bridge. Each station teaches you a little about physics, orbits, gas analyzation in a format that a seven-year-old (Skirmie’s age) can understand and have a little fun with.

Additionally, they’ve got a shit-load of planes, other displays, a moon rock and an Imax theater, which is showing what I hear is a pretty awesome movie called “Alien Adventure”. I figured, “Shit hot!” we’ll spend Saturday afternoon there – he’ll have fun and I’ll have fun and he’ll learn something to boot.

So, I pick him up Saturday morning from his mother’s hotel and promptly start to get him all excited about the museum and the stuff we’ll do there. He’s jacked about going.

We get there, park, enter the ticketing area prepared to get the museum + Imax tickets, and…

“Daaaaad!!!”
“Yes?”
“I wanna see this movie! Please, please, please!”

There, standing before him, is a cardboard cutout “attention getter” of what I must assume is the latest boy-band N-Sync. Dear Lord, where did this come from? Why is it in a science museum? I know his mother got dragged to a Nickelodeon Kids Concert last summer – she’s yet to recover. Personally, I dispise all these bubble-gum, raking-in-the-dough groups which prey on kids and pre-teen girls. Now if it was the Dead it’d be a different story.

“We have to see this movie, Daddy!”
“Well, we’re going to see ‘Alien Adventure.’ It’s got aliens in it.”
“I don’t wanna see aliens. I wanna see N-Sync.”

OK. I don’t want a hissy-fit in the museum lobby, so maybe I should take a different tact.

“I’m sorry but it’s not playing yet. They are just advertising that it is coming next week.”
“No it’s playing in 15 minutes… look,” he points.

I turn. Above the ticket counter, sure as shit – “N-Sync: Bigger Than Live – 1 p.m.”
“Ah, fuck,” I think. “I forgot he’s learned to read. Damn school system.” O.K., time to exercise my God-given right – parental authority.

“Skirm, we’re not going to see N-Sync.”
“Why,” he says as hysteria starts coloring his voice.
“'Cause they suck. Daddy hates them.”

Gasps from behind me. I look and notice for the first time that there are just scads of kids about, tons of pre-teen girls and a shitload of exhausted looking moms. “Uh, oh. I just blasphemed what all these kids believe is the end-all and be-all of music.”

“Please?”
“No.” I scoot to the head of the line to buy the tickets quickly – that’ll end it.

“Pleeeeeeeze?”
“No.”
“But everyone is going to see N-Sync!”
“No they’re not,” though personally I though he was probably closer to reality than me.
“Yes they are. Pleeeeeeeeeze?”

O.K., this is getting out of hand. I can tell a full-blown tantrum may erupt momentarily. “It’s time to nip this in the bud,” I think as I step to the ticket counter.

“Skirmie, listen. We’ll go see another movie. There’s tons of other stuff to do here, too. Then we’ll go get dinner at Chuckie Cheese’s.”

“May I help you,” the ticket guy asks.
“Yes. I’d like an adult and a child ticket for the museum and…”

Skirm play his trump card.
“You never wanna do what I wanna do! Mommy would take me.”

“…two tickets to ::shudder:: N-Sync.”

I hate N-Sync. Die, vile scum.
I hate the VaAirSci Museum. You bastards!
I hate myself for giving in. The cards were stacke against me.

On the up side, he had the time of his life and I was again his hero for the weekend.

2

Damn.

This thread sunk quicker’n the Titanic.

3

I dunno if this is going to give you hives, ChiefScott, but {Scott}.

Your kid will remember this for . . . well, a while, hopefully. And you’ll be able to tease him mercilessly about making you take him to see N Sync when he’s older. his girlfriends’ll get a kick out of it.

4

As a former rent-a-kid, I gotta say that:

  1. I learned this sort of parental manipulation at an early age. Some of it came from my own twisted mind, some from things the parents taught me to say to the other parent - to sort of twist the knife a little more. I was 8 when they split for good, so Skirmie might be ahead of the game here.

  2. You’re a good parent for doing this for your kid. Not going to the N’Stynk or Pokemon stuff, but for making the long drive to see him every chance you can. I know of too many kids now who’s dad won’t drive across town to see their kids, and they live in a small town!!

As a father of an 11 year old, I gotta warn you, Chief, that it gets worse.

There’s the marathon Pokemon card games, and you gotta learn how the game is played, and what each card does.

There’s the rollerblading outings, where you gotta be able to stand up on rollerblades for several hours, and laugh off the bruises when it hurts so bad you’re ready to chew your own leg off to just get rid of the pain.

And in a few years, you gotta just stand back and realize that your kid thinks you’re an idiot who can’t possibly know what it’s like to be teased at school by other kids, or turned down by the cute girls when he shyly asks them out, or to be cut from the team because some mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging troll who started shaving in 8th grade can run faster than he can.

But there’s an occasional “Wow! Thanks, Dad!”, or “You’re the best dad there ever was!” that makes up for it. So hang in there, grit your teeth, and imagine what that blow-dried, sequined-wearing jerk on the screen will be in 3 years, when he’s just another dried-up has-been that nobody remembers. Think Menudo, and you’ll know what I mean…

5

Chief, I suggest you put 'N Sync away in a drawer for a few months, and then review them later… oh no wait, that’s YOUR advice to me.

Seriously, you’re a great guy to spend so much time with your kid. If i may interject a bit of criticism though… I don’t really think 'N Sync is FOR YOU to like. It’s for little kids (and me. By God Lance will BE MINE). I say let them have their fun. No harm to you, no harm to them.

Live and let live with musical tastes, my man. You and your kids aren’t supposed to agree :slight_smile:

jarbaby

6

Been there, hon. Thank the heavens that my daughter is well out of her N’Sync phase - not that her musical tastes have improved much.

Now. If I could just get my son deprogrammed from Pokemon …

7

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m a good dad and all that.

I wanna know what’s going through the administrator minds as they OK an N Sync movie at a science museum! Yeah, it’ll bring in more young people, but they’ll probably check out the movie, pile back in the car, and giggle about Justin all the way home.

You’d never catch the Franklin Institute in Philly pulling this sort of stunt.

8

Hey, Chief, the OP doesn’t say - did you like the movie? Did Justin cause just a little stir in your skivvies?Didja buy the video? Enquiring minds want to know!

9

Duh! Justin is such a loser. LANCE LANCE LANCE! He’s the real cutey.

Hey Chief, I think maybe the reason they said let’s have an 'N Sync movie is because that gets the kids INTO THE MUSEUM at least. They’re not going to come stand in line for “the origins of jet propulsion as told by Del Roy Lindo” for god’s sake.

Even if they giggle about Justin all the way home, something else they saw that day will have sunk in…I sincerely believe it.

jarbaby

10

Doc –

No. No. No. But the Apollo 14 capsule was cool.

Jarbaby –

What’s next? Topless dancers at the public library?

11

I’m sure it’s the best way to raise circulation.

12

What about in the winter? Or would there be some device for measuring exactly how cold it was?

:smiley:

13

And now I have to kill her. That was wonderfully horrible. Or horribly wonderful.

On topic…I am in the process of trying to teach my 6-year-old son that, while he may LIKE the Backstreet Boys and N’Sync, they are still talentless hacks.

“But why?”

“Because they can sing and dance, but they can’t write their own music and they can’t play instruments.”

“But I can hear instruments!”

“But it’s not THEM playing.”

I feel for you, ChiefScott, whether you care or not. Here’s hoping you can instill a hearty dose of cynicism in that kid before he hits high school.

[slightly o/t: I was a rent-a-kid too, but I always considered it beneath me to play the “manipulate the parents” game. See? An elitist pig from INFANCY!!]

14

The wool may still be over my eyes, Hamadryad, but I don’t think he was playing “manipulate the parents.” I probably add that twist myself as I still compare myself to my ex (For all her faults, she is an awesome mom!). He just really, really, really wante to see the movie.

You do know, Nickelodeon grills this stuff into their brains. Catch “Snick” one afternoon. They push, and push, an push these bubble gum groups.

15

I don’t want to start a hijack bruhaha, because I know I’m the only one here who likes 'N Sync.

But Pavarotti doesn’t write his own music or play his own instruments either. He’s a singer.

Is he a talentless hack?

jarbaby

16

The wool may still be over my eyes, Hamadryad, but I don’t think he was playing “manipulate the parents.” I probably add that twist myself as I still compare myself to my ex (For all her faults, she is an awesome mom!). He just really, really, really wanted to see the movie.

You do know, Nickelodeon grills this stuff into their brains. Catch “Snick” one afternoon. They push, and push, and push these bubble gum groups.

17

And though he’s talented, Pavarotti is not in the same “push-it-down-your-throat, ain’t-we-cute, we-love-our-fans, pre-pubescent-female-fantasy, popular” category as the boys.

18

Oops, I wasn’t very clear. The “manipulating the parents” thing was in response to RalfCoder:

I didn’t mean to imply that your kid was doing this. I’m sorry.

Yeah, I know Nickelodeon pushes this stuff. That’s why the kid gets home at 2:15; the tv goes off at 3; and I do everything I can to TELL him why that’s not Good Music.

I have nothing against bubble gum as long as the kids KNOW they’re getting bubble gum…and know how much better a juicy steak is, if you see what I’m saying.

jarbabyj: Pavarotti was trained. He has learned to use his voice AS an instrument. He plays the cello; the BSB and N’Sync play plastic recorders.

19

Of course he isn’t. I’m just illustrating that to be talented, you aren’t required to write your own music or play your own instruments. Some people are only talented at singing and dancing.

I can do NEITHER, or write music OR play instruments.

I just think 'N Sync, if not fun, is absolutely harmless in the general world scheme.

jarbaby

20

I’d like to emphasize once again that I’m not comparing Pavarotti to 'N Sync, I’m saying that writing your own music is not the only means of being talented.

Also, Lance Bass, Justin Timberlake and J.C. Chasez were all vocally trained from the age of six, I believe. Not to sing opera, but pop or musical theatre training. Ricky Martin sang the part of Marius in Les Miserable on Broadway, Debbie Gibson has been in numerous Broadway productions

I know these bubble gum bands aren’t the be all end all, they aren’t my favorite brand of music, but I don’t think they’re bad enough to wish death on them either. :slight_smile:

jarbaby