looking for Big Foot

In my last post I told you about the time Tate saw a ghost and had no trouble accepting the “fact” that ghosts roam freely in our world.  If he sees it, then it exists.  End of story.  Not being able to separate fantasy from reality, or understanding the motives of others and why they would pretend, has him believing in many costumed characters.  Tate doesn’t have any trouble believing Santa is real and his reindeer fly or that muppets are alive and well.  I have to explain to him what is real and what we are just pretending about “for fun.”  Sometimes I get through to him and sometimes I think it goes in one ear and right out the other. 

 

One of Tate’s favorite shows is iCarly.  He watches the reruns over and over.  In one episode, the iCarly show tries to find Big Foot.  At the end of the episode, Big Foot drives off with the RV.  Tate loves that part.  We have also seen Big Foot star in a few commercials for beef jerky.  Tate is convinced that Big Foot is alive and well and probably living in the trees around our house.  He isn’t frightened in any way.  He wants to catch sight of him.  Several times Tate has told me that we are going to go into the woods after dark and find Big Foot.  When Tate decides something is going to happen it is very hard to alter his plans.  It is not like redirecting a small child and distracting them with another activity.  He obsesses about the thing he wants to do and tries everything he can think of to make it happen.  His announcement usually begins “Hey Mom, on Friday night, we will go find Big Foot.”  I never know quite how to respond.  “No, we will not” won’t get me anywhere with Tate, and “Big Foot is not real” will not even be heard.  So, I usually just take advantage of the fact that he wants to converse with me.  Since conversation skills are few and the motivation to converse is rare, I go with the flow.  I might ask, “Where will we look?”  Tate will explain to me that Big Foot lives in the woods and we can look in the woods around our house or we could drive to some other wooded area if I like.  Then he will probably caution me that we will need to be careful if we drive anywhere because Big Foot has been known to steal people’s cars (the iCarly episode has taught him this).  I ask him what we will need to bring and he will tell me that we only need a flash light and some biscuits.  This summer, one of his siblings convinced him we would probably need some bait and Tate believes Big Foot would like biscuits.

 

I do a lot of things for Tate, but I am not about to go traipsing around in the woods at night looking for Big Foot.  I have tried several methods of convincing Tate that looking for Big Foot would not be a good idea.  Once I told Tate I wouldn’t be able to help him hunt for Big Foot because I’d be too afraid.  I asked “What would we do if we found him?”  Tate’s response?  “Shoot him.”  Yikes.  I guess we add a GUN to the list of things to bring now.  HELP!