A mother who edits.

A mother who just wants her children to sit down and eat their food.

But it’s so violent. The whole show is about war.

Exactly.

That my children’s fantasy play was so closely aligned with a hit show that had captured my imagination felt like winning the lottery. Entire episodes could be condensed, de-gored and used to hold them spellbound for a whopping 30 minutes at a time. Sansa’s harrowing escape, Lady Melisandre’s visions in the fire, knights, ladies, kings and queens. Direwolves, wildings and the dragons.

Delving deeper, I seized on “teachable moments” in response to basic questions. Why did Tyrion kill his dad? Well, his dad was not nice to him, and neither were a lot of other people. Why? Because Tyrion is a dwarf, which means he is smaller and looks different from everyone else. Is that a reason to be mean? No. Tyrion may look different, but inside he is just the same as everyone else.

Why was Queen Cersei so cruel? they wanted to know.

This led to a re-examination of my own views. I had always despised Cersei (who didn’t?), but was there a more sympathetic, feminist explanation for her actions? She was haunted by a prophecy that foretold of her unseating by a younger, more beautiful queen. She was terrified that she would lose yet another child. She wanted at long last to have some power and autonomy.

Jaime’s character arc also proved interesting. On the one hand, he threw Bran off the wall and paralyzed him. My son shook his head. Jaime was really, really bad to do that to Bran. On the other hand, Jaime had done some good deeds. He saved Brienne and sent her on an important mission to save Bran’s sister. “Can a bad guy really turn into a good guy?” my son asked. Sometimes, yes. People can change. Particularly when bad things happen to them that make it easier for them to see the world from another person’s point of view. For instance, when Jaime’s sword hand was chopped off.

Why do some of the girls get to be princesses and some of the girls get to be warriors? my daughter wanted to know. It’s kind of like at preschool, I told her. Some girls like to dress up in fancy costumes, and some girls like to play with the boys. “I like to do both,” she said. I told her, “In ‘Game of Thrones’ you have to choose, but luckily in real life, you don’t.”