Matthew asked for help reading the following sign. In case it is hard to read from the photo, it says: Do Not Feed the Foam Pit: Remove cell phones from your pockets before entering. They WILL fall out.
I tried to explain to Matthew that the sign was a clever way of reminding people that they will lose their cell phones in 8 feet of foam if they do not take them out of their pockets before jumping in. Matthew stopped playing in the foam pit. He had lots of questions about where the "Foam Pit Monster" lives and why does he eat cell phones. Unkie Jude and I spent the 30 minutes explaining how the monster was pretend and didn't really exist.. alternating with Unkie Jude's accusations that the "monster stole his wallet and he did not have any more money to spend on the arcade claw machine". When Matthew was convinced that the Foam Pit Monster was pretend he started to ask "what if" questions.
If there was a monster in the foam pit would he eat your cell phone if you were bad? Yes.
What would he do if he saw a little boy who was being good? He would give the boy a high five.
What if a boy was good but he also dropped his cell phone? Would the monster eat it then? Not if he gave the monster Unkie Jude's wallet in exchange for the cell phone.
These questions also lasted for the whole 45 minute drive home. It made me think that maybe Poppers (Matthew's grandfather) created the sign. When Jude and I were kids Poppers loved to make up scary stories when we went camping or had friends over.
