As mentioned in an earlier blog post, this year I attended my first ComiCon and brought my kids along for the ride.
Because I’m a cool mom (read: occasionally, completely irresponsible in the name of fun) I took them out of school on the Friday of the con and we just nerded out ALL DAY!!!
It was brilliant. We dressed as Doctors 9, 10 & 11… Complete with a fez for my eldest. Fantastic! Molto bene! Geronimo!
I had a VIP weekend pass which allowed us to get in early and get preferred line treatment. It was wonderful for just me and brilliant with the kids.
Now, I had explained to the kids that as a group costume, especially containing children, people would want to take our picture and boy did the ever. We couldn’t get from one booth to the next without being stopped at least once.
At one point we came across a Dalek and all sonic’d it to the delight of everybody around. It was great!
That was until my eldest started getting a little sullen and rude.
I turned to talk to him and he was crying. My youngest is a big ball of extroversion and I’m no stranger to a camera so it had never occurred to me that my eldest would get upset by all the people taking our picture (I will shout out right now…everybody was extremely polite and asked us first)
Immediately I shut things down and brought the boys to get something to eat. We sat down and I let them just chill.
I had some photo ops to juggle around, reschedule and what not so I decided that would be the next course of events. I could do that while they just hung out, sitting down, calming down.
As we got up I noticed the line up for Wil Wheaton autographs was starting.
I loved Wesley Crusher and anybody who says anything against him has me to deal with…and the boys adore Wil on The Big Bang Theory so we were all excited to meet him.
I got us into line and we waited for our turn.
As we approached I saw how much Wil seemed to genuinely enjoy meeting his fans. It was really nice to see since there were some people there whom you could tell were tired of Cons. Wil’s wife Anne was by his side, chatting people up and being a delight herself. It was just wonderful to see.
Soon enough it was our turn. We walked up, the boys chose the picture they wanted signed and we approached Wil Wheaton.
He looked up to ask us what we wanted on the picture and his eyes got wide “OH MY GOD!!! YOU GUYS ARE DRESSED LIKE THE DOCTORS!!! Can I take your picture and put it on the Twitters?”
I’m not sure how I said “Sure. Of course” because my brain was saying “AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! WIL FRICKING WHEATON WANTS YOUR PICTURE!!!”
So, we arranged ourselves, posed and got our picture taken by one of my first celebrity crushes and the only person there my kids were super excited to meet.
Next order of business was getting our chosen picture signed and heading off for the next person. I’ll be honest, my kids did most of the talking at that point.
As we walked off I was shaking, people were congratulating me on hitting some geek pinacle but all I could do was tell my kids it was mom’s turn to sit down.
Something happened as we walked away though. Somebody asked to take our picture again and my eldest jumped at the opportunity. He posed like a champ, looked Eleveny and thanked them as they finished. Less than half an hour prior he’d been in tears at the prospect of another photo being taken.
I asked him what changed and he said “Um…Wil Wheaton wanted a picture we look so cool” as though I should know this already.
Through genuine interaction and interest in his fans, Wil Wheaton not only saved the day but now my kids are excited for next year and want to group costume again…knowing full well people will want our pictures.
It was an amazing moment for them and an amazing moment for me. For us to bond together, muddle through the tears and then have something super cool happen as a group was brilliant.
I’m a single mom and I haven’t always gotten “it” right but on that day, with a little help from somebody I’d never met, I think I did.
Photo Courtesy of Wil Wheaton
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