A few years ago, when my 4-year-old son was 2, my parents gave him two capes. One was a Superman cape and the other one was a Batman cape. Guillermo was elated. I don’t think he even knew who Superman was, but he immediately put on the red cape, which nearly reached the floor on his short body, and took off flying around the room. The four adults in the room took turns wearing the Batman cape because Guillermo wouldn’t stop running and jumping and we were too tired to keep up with him. I loved that night. I remembering laughing so hard tears fell.

Looking back on it now, I also cherish his innocence that night, too, because today it seems he can recite the names of every Marvel Comic book hero and antagonist the way some kids can recite the St. Louis Cardinal’s starting lineup.

That leads me to my current parenting dilemma. How much information about superheroes and the like should a 4-year-old have access to?

This a brand new world for me. I don’t remember ever reading a comic book before I read one with my son and now it seems that’s all he wants to read. I used to love picking out books at the library for my kids. Now I know that I better bring home a few comic books. But finding comic books suitable for a 4-year-old is proving difficult. Right now, we are borrowing his friend’s book, “Showcase Presents Shazam! Vol. 1.” It is more than 500 pages of black and white comics about Capitan Marvel fighting evil. I admit it. I like it. And what I like most about it from a parenting perspective is that the comics reprinted in the book are from the mid-1970s or earlier, and have more of folksy feel, with all the “holy molies” creeping into the dialogue.

Guillermo has a few superhero action figures, like Superman and Spiderman and a few Power Rangers. When we visit my father-in-law, Guillermo loves playing with my husband’s old Teenage Mutant Ninja turtle action figures.

For the most part, Guillermo is banned from watching superhero cartoons. Absolutely no Transformers. No Power Rangers either, even though on Halloween, he dressed up like the red one (“he’s the first one, you know, “Guillermo told me when he made a pitch for the costume after deviating away from the original plan to go as a space pirate). At his school Halloween party, I realized where his superhero fixation was coming from. There were no less than two Power Rangers, three Teenage Mutant Turtles and three Spiderman. I do allow him to watch Spiderman occasionally on Saturday mornings, but many times we try to get out of the house before it comes on.

My husband says he sees nothing wrong with Guillermo watching some of the cartoons or reading the comics. “It’s not real,” he says.

I’m still on the fence. Anyone out there have any advice? Or, am I beyond advice? It seems I’ve opened this can of worms already and it might take Superman himself to close it.

Natalie appears every Sunday on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Natalie at A Day at the Park.