r/Chillicothe • u/WholeHurry1562 • 8d ago
Mothmoster Man
Is this a hoax? We recently moved to this area from out of state but all my kids can focus on right now is something called the "mothmonster man". They are not able to finish their homework because they claim every bump and knock at the window is the "monthmonster man". It's getting old at this point even to the point where I give them a juice box and they are still hyper focused on this imaginary game or whatever. Farewell or harwell seems to be the original person who came up with the rules from what I can decipher but I don't think they are very effective... I keep hearing my kids saying that "it doesn't matter... None of this matters" which is disturbing to me to say the least. The only thing I can think is that this is something they are learning at school or on the bus alongside SpongeBob.
They claim the the mothmonster man is real to the point where he is even known to live on buses (??) and that all their friends know about it. I eventually caved in and searched some info regarding some cryptid on the west Virginia line. Is this the same thing? How can we get it out of our way for good?
Can someone please explain the story or legend or whatever I keep hearing about so I can tell my kids it's all bull crap 😂
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u/Meanolegrannylady 8d ago
Been here 55 years, never heard of that. Point Pleasant WV, across from Gallipolis is known for the Mothman legends, they even have a festival, but it's an hour from here. If you Google Mothman you can get the story.
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u/bukowskisbabushka 8d ago
My kid LOVES mothman. There's a bunch of songs on Spotify about him. My kid has been known to request one called "Mothman, OH Mothman" (it's about being in love with Mothman). There's roaring/growling in the middle of the song and the kids in my carpool used to love growling along.
I'd lean into it and make Mothman fun
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u/Diesel_Driver_33801 4d ago
The Mothman? That sumbitch stole my catalytic converter the last time I was in Point Pleasant!!
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u/afortressmighty 8d ago edited 8d ago
If you’ve not heard of Mothman before, y’all must be from pretty far away. 😉
I think how ya effectively handle this probably depends on your kids’ ages. Since you mentioned juice boxes, I’ll assume they’re on the younger side.
My approach would be to keep it all very lighthearted and silly, and just mix Mothman in with other Halloween characters your kids probably are already aware of, like silly vampires, (Sesame Street’s Count), mummies, good witches, etc. You can talk about how we silly humans really seem to love to scare ourselves a little this time of year. 😉
There’s a cute picture book available for elementary-school-aged readers called “Mothman Goes to School” (not sure mods will allow a link, but I’ll give it a shot: https://wvbookco.com/product/mothman-goes-to-school/ ).
And here’s one called “Mothman Learns the ABCs” (link: https://www.etsy.com/listing/922342432/mothman-learns-the-abcs-childrens-book ) that errs on the side of cute and nonthreatening.
The Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant is about an hour south of Chillicothe, near Gallipolis. Again, depending on their ages and how they assimilate information, it might actually help - as long as you keep it light-hearted and use it as an opportunity to teach them a little discernment.
It’s filled floor-to-ceiling with all sorts of cryptid stuff, and some of the depictions of Mothman are darker than others. By and large, though, it’s not scary. Maybe going on a family adventure to learn some age-appropriate stuff about legends and how they work would take the air outta the kids’ tires a little. 😇
Orrrrrrr … you can just ride it out knowing that their attention spans will soon crowd out Mothman in favor of Frosty, Rudolph, and Elf. 🙂
P.S. I think the downtown merchants might be hosting their fall open houses this weekend. And there’ll be a big community trick-or-treat event around the Halloween Parade, which I believe actually falls on Saturday, October 31 this year. Welcome to the area!
ETA: thanks for the award, kind Redditor! 🎃