My boy was having some problems with a bully in his school. He was very upset about something the bully did to him earlier today, and he really wanted to get him back tomorrow.
The Sunday school lesson on the Golden Rule was probably not going to work, but when his little brother skipped around us with his toy Star Wars ship, a small light bulb turned on. I asked him if wanted to be like Anakin and turn into Darth Vader. He said, "No way." And, I was able to explain how Anakin wanted revenge on the Tusken Raiders... and gave into the dark side and turned into a really evil character. He said he'd rather be like Luke and Obi-Wan who did not give into hate. He got it!
I added that sometimes bad guys are misunderstood and turn into good guys and even friends. Here I was able to use Ben10, a boy cartoon about battling space aliens. There was a delinquent character named Kevin who started out as a nemesis to the main character, Ben. Later on the series, Ben was able to relate to Kevin who turned out to be rough but a good person at heart. Kevin turns into one of the good guys. Again, my boy totally got this concept. Without the cartoons, I think it would have been much more difficult to explain these things.
I've never seen an entire episode of Ben10, but I talk to the boys about it. They love telling me the stories and the characters. Sometimes it is much easier to use analogies from the TV shows to explain otherwise very difficult concepts. I think the key is tuning into what your kids are watching.
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