What Commercials Can Lead Too
While we were doing a run to pick up medication for Hannah, we drove by a Heineken semi truck. Gabriel’s response was "What’s that?"
"It’s a Heineken truck"
"Do they have robots in there?"
I smiled. He had caught that cool new commercial that Heineken has produced with a beautiful 1920’s women inspired robot. It is an amazing piece of work. The CGI melts into the images and keeps making unexpected things happen. Gabriel has been really open to commercials. "No, Gabriel there are no robots in there. The truck is full of bottles of beer."
"Can I try some? If I drink it, can I make robots?"
"No, that was a commercial you caught. The point of commercials is to get people to buy things. They are not always a good idea to buy them or try them."
"I want to try beer so I can make robots."
At this point I’m trying not to fall into laughter. My mind is rushing to next week when he begins kindergarten and what he will say to other children. "Gabriel, you can’t try Heineken or any beer till you’re an adult. Beer is something only adults can drink and they shouldn’t drink it all the time."
"When I’m a Daddy can I try beer?"
"I doubt you will like it Gabriel." I must start brainwashing now.
"What is beer?"
"Rotten wheat, barley, and hops. Sounds kind of gross huh."
"Do robots drink beer?"
"Sure."
"So beer is for robots."
I decided to go with it "Yeah."
"I want to make a beer kids can drink. So kids can make robots, too."
"There is a beer that kids can drink; it is called root beer. You don’t need to drink beer to make robots."
"Oh."
"Do you want to work on a robot with me?"
"Yes"
Today, Gabriel and I started working on the Radio Shack snap circuit kit together today. I explained that to build a robot one needs to understand electricity first. He loved it. I’m excited because it is a pet project I want to work on, too. We did five experiments, and he asked me to do more the rest of day.
--Mom
