I told you so! or not

By Stacy Johnson

I had one of those "I told you so" moments with my son last week.  While I wanted to revel in the moment, the situation turned on me.  It is pretty funny so I want to share.

My son who will be 18 tomorrow, bought a morph suit.  Have you seen these things?  They are scary.  Think of Blue Man Group or Spiderman suit but make it all black.  It is weird.  It is especially weird to see your 6'2" son who is skinny as a rail put it on and come out wearing it.  The first time he did, my two year old screamed bloody murder and for the next two days when he was near her without the suit she would say, "Geta way!  You scare me, don't do that."  Her scared, little pouty face was hard to look at because she was totally and completely serious.  The baby, on the other hand, thought it was hilarious and he loves to play with him.  

Vance kept telling me about all the places he was going to wear his morph suit and I got a sick feeling in my stomach.  I told him I thought the suit was a little scary and it might make people suspicious and call the police.  I added that I thought it was a bad idea to wear it anywhere except at maybe a friend's party, but I'd leave the choice up to him.   He assured me that plenty of people have worn them in public and not to worry.  I ended the conversation with the warning that I would not like a phone call from the police needing me to come pick up my underage trouble maker from anywhere.  He laughed at me like I was ridiculous.

So, the first weekend, he and his friends went to the parking lot of the WalMart and Quiznos (where he works) and he put on the suit.  He went around shaking people's hands and just being a nuisance, but not hurting anyone or touching any cars or property.  What do you think happened?  Someone thought he looked suspicious and called the police.  I told you so!  And the first time wearing it out too!  He interrupted my moment of glee to add, "So the policeman came and found me in the parking lot and he got out of his car.  He asked me for ID and I pointed to my car on the other side of the lot.  He looked my name up on the computer and saw that I was clear and then wanted to know all the details about where I bought it, how I got into it, what I was doing and stuff like that.  Then he called all patrol cars in the vicinity to come and check me out.  Within just a few minutes, I was surrounded by 5 cop cars and I was really nervous."  

I just sat there with my mouth open, I felt like I was going to throw up during the whole story.  He finally concluded by saying that as soon as the rest of the deputies showed up and got out of their cars, they all started laughing, they thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen.  Then he had to answer all their questions too.  Finally he said the cop told him to go home, so he did.  Whew, I'm glad that ended well.  But, it gets better (for him).

Last weekend, I took a bunch of the kids ice skating.  My oldest brought some friends and his morph suit (without my knowledge).  After skating for about 30 minutes, he left and I didn't know where he had gone.  Not even 10 minutes later, here he comes back on the ice in his morph suit but this time with clothes over it.  Still creepy if you ask me.  But, I let it go, he is harmless and nobody seems to have a problem with it except for my two year old who was not happy about it.  

Pretty soon, this dad comes over to him and says that his little boy has hurt his finger while skating and the kid things that my son is some kind of super hero, would he mind coming over and saying something to the boy?  Vance did and the kid forgot about his finger and was in awe at the real live super hero standing in front of him.

Super Hero or Super Scary?

Needless to say, I may be the only one who thinks the suit is creepy, what do you think?