Saturday, August 16, 2014

Why Imma read Harry Potter to my kids

I've loved Harry Potter so much I genuinely doubt my life would have been the same without him. I ended up moving to Scotland, a country I don't suppose I would have been aware of if I hadn't seen Braveheart or The Prisoner of Azcaban, and spent weeks of my life watching and reading Harry Potter, never mind the time spent on hiking through filming locations and planning my honeymoon to Harry Potter World in Orlando. Needless to say, I'm a huge fan. Just as much as I grew up with those books I can't wait to make my kids grow up with them. I'm not sure what I would do if my kid wasn't into it. At the very least I would question if it is indeed my child. However, the reason I want my children to read Harry Potter is not just to entertain their homework-free time but to learn some good old life lessons. Here's what I mean...

First of all, I would very much like for their father to be just like Albus Dumbledore (minus a few years but definitely not sans beard). In the likely event my baby daddy is not a super wise man with the right thing to say at all times I need my children to learn from Dumbledore. That man's got it! Advice like "we got to choose between what is right and what is easy" is golden, my kids need to learn that. At the same time, the possibility of them not listening to me is quite large while ignoring Dumbledore's advice is probably foolish to any kid. I also want my kids to see that caring for other people is a virtue and that being calm and collected is a very good way to be. Basically, I want them to turn out exactly like Albus. 

On top of that, it's very important to me that my children grow up to be tolerant and generous people. Who better to show them who to make friends with than Harry Potter? I think we can all agree that choosing Ron and Hermione, the poor kid and the immigrant, was a better idea than choosing Draco, the rich kid. Then Harry starts dating an Asian girl and a redhead, showing us that diversity is a beautiful thing. And even great kids like Harry Potter were bullied in school, hopefully showing my kids that there is no logic behind who gets glory and who doesn't. Harry also befriends a werewolf and an elf, both of whom would usually struggle to make friends to begin with, a gay principal and the biggest outcast in the whole school and in conclusion I'd say he made all the right choices in doing so. Despite having no family that boy is never alone. The elf nobody even wants to talk to saves his life, for crying out loud. It's a beautiful message!

This might be the nerdiest thing I could ever say but those books are highly political and educational. I would like to believe that things could play out like in the books if there was a Wizarding World. Let's face it, Voldemort is just a small scale Hitler, and I'm definitely not going to teach my kids about genocide until a reasonable age. Therefore, my children will learn about real-life political scenarios from an early age where the reality of world politics and history would probably still make the wet their pants, and consequently how to pick the right side. Another political reality in Harry Potter is the ridiculousness of the media. You can't trust the freaking papers even in this world. And look at that, politicians are delirious and clueless, what a surprise! Ya ain't have to be in the wizarding world to have that be true...

The best message of Harry Potter is that life is tough but thankfully you're not in it alone. I felt rather bad for Harry Potter a lot of times because of what he had to go through but in the end he turns out to be such an awesome guy. Hopefully my kids won't have to be orphans chased by a murderer but I do hope they learn to be strong like Harry Potter even when crap's going down. I also think that those movies are wonderful sunday afternoon family movies. I'm gonna bake cookies and make hot chocolate, we'll light the fireplace (because damn straight I'll have one) and the christmas tree and it's Harry Potter time. My kids will have a great memory. And when they're old enough I'll take them to Scotland to see where Mommy used to live and take them around my old campus and they'll feel like they're in Hogwarts. It sounds like a perfect plan to me. 

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