Not mom-of-the-year

I don't know how everyone else does Christmas, but at our house, we manipulate. We influence, plant seeds, and try to convince the kids that they really don't want to ask for an expensive/crazy popular/hard to find item, that what they really want is something that isn't going to annoy mom and dad. Win/win, right?

We have a tradition that Santa usually gives each of them a new movie for Christmas. He happened to have shopped on Amazon this year, where if you buy a new movie, you also get a digital rental to watch online free with the purchase. So I thought that was pretty cool, and I'd give the kids a chance to watch said movie and get them all excited to ask for it for Christmas. Good idea, right?

Santa bought Maren the "Nancy Drew" dvd. She's totally into mysteries, figuring out clues. She loves the Scooby Doo movies for that reason. She pretends with Kellan all the time about treasure maps. I thought she would totally love this movie, I had watched part of it a while ago and approved. It had all of the classic mystery plot buildup. A mysterious death, a hidden fortune, she was loving it.

Until this guy shows up.

Good looking, right? (His name is Craig Gellis) Except he was a villian. And he had one dark brown eye, and one blue eye. She came into the kitchen right after this guy showed up in the movie, and she was completely terrified saying there was a man with a black scary eye. Seriously panicking here. But she wanted to finish the movie, so James goes back into the living room to sit with her, and she resumed watching her online movie. Near the end, when the suspense picks up, he shows up again with an intense reflection in the mirror showing his EYE, the evil brown colored EYE. (thanks, Maren. By the way, did you notice your mother has brown eyes?) So Maren hunkers down in the arm chair, half covering her face. When the movie ended, which I'm pleased to say was a happy ending (of course), Maren was still hunkered down hiding her face.

I asked if she was ok. She promptly told me she was about to throw up, and I hurried her to the bathroom, and held her hair. She was trembling! She didn't toss her cookies, but she was flushed and clammy, and was relaying how badly that man scared her and asked me to delete the movie from the computer right away.

Needless to say bedtime wasn't so easy, James had to explain to her all of the ways that a big strong daddy like she has will protect her. And also explained the difference between actors and their real life. She is so amazed to have learned that Hermoine Granger from Harry Potter isn't a real person. Her little world was so rocked tonight.

And I have a new, unopened copy of Nancy Drew on DVD, which hasn't even been delivered yet, for sale. Any takers?! Total parent.fail here people.