Backstory

“No action figures,” I said to my very sweet 3, 4 and then 5 year old son and his younger brother. I meant it. The boys battled it out instead with sticks, legos and blocks. One day I overheard the wife of a child psychologist say that many of her husband’s clients, boys with anxiety, were not allowed to play with toy guns. I rushed to Kmart and got my son his first Spiderman action figure. He was 6 and his enthusiasm snapped me out of another bout of clueless parenting and today we have a closet full of Spiderman comic books.

Listen to NPR’s story HERE

Aired on November 29th, 2000

Photo Credit: Marvel Comics ‘New England Comics/M.Guild’