what kids watch

What is it about what kids watch these days? The shows are crazy. Like have you ever watched Dora? Are our kids mentally challenged or deaf because she says everything 4 times. And well she just has bad luck to run into so many obstacles on each mission. Then there is things like Yo Gabba Gabba... um smoke pot much!? But the worst are the things like Hi 5 where the girls dress and dance sexy or the Fresh Beat Band with 30 somethings dancing to tragic choreography. What are these grown adults doing? And the bigger question why do our kids love them so?
I know I hear you saying it! Don't let her watch it. I agree. But in our crazy life tv has become a necessity for her safety. There are times in the day when I am breast feeding our baby or trying to get him to sleep where I just need her to be in one place. So here I am watching these people who just seem way to old to be doing this stupid dance. And she is happy. There are some shows which are surprisingy educational and some that make me laugh so hard (Peep).
We tried to be the type of parents who didn't let our daughter watch tv but in the end I realized we would have been raising an outcast. All her friends watch it so when they ask her who she likes on bla bla she can answer. What I do know is kids can be brutal so why give them more ammo. Tv is not the same now as it was when we were kids. My daughter knows chinese thank you Kai Lan, she knows what a giganotosaurus is thank you Dinosaur Train. I can't say I could do that at 4. And when we were kids the characters were all trying to kill, maim or eat each other. Remember the one with the sheep dog and the wolf? And if they weren't doing that they were super sexy.. hello  Josie and the Pussycats! I would take Peep any day. Everything in moderation I guess.
So if it means an extra half hour of sleep or a quiet undisturbed meal for my 3 month old then bring on the tv!

TV

We all watch it. Well most of us. We have become so spoiled with todays technology no one really watches regular tv at all. DVR's and TiVo have changed our lives. Our very good friend Peter was the first person we knew that had a TiVo and he regularly gave us an infomercial whenever we went to their house for some tv watching. We were soon sold. Somehow from our love of tv we ended forming a life time bond with our friend Peter and his wife and another couple who also had a love of tv as insatiable as ours.
The bond started when I was surfing reruns (pre TiVo) and came across a show called Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I introduced my husband to it and we were hooked. Silly but true. When I say it changed our life I really mean it. We soon found out some other friends were also fans and decided to have dinner and watch the show. They then asked if their friends could come along too. So in September of 2002 Buffy Night was born! We had dinner every Tuesday or Wednesday for the next 8 years. With a few exceptions for births and a small bout of cancer, we did it every week.  Yes, every week!
Some weeks were all out gourmet and others were takeout and beer. Most involved tv especially Buffy, until its sad demise. Then we watched other things like American Idol and other crap but as the years went by tv moved into the background and life took over. We all had babies first one couple then we all had babies at the same time. Over the years the conversation evolved from tv to the houses we bought, then to the weddings we were planning, then to cervixes, vaginas and stretch marks, then to poop and pee and kids kids kids. We all grew into a family the kids acting like cousins the parents like aunts and uncles. We had a few joiners on the way and they were most welcome but the core group were faithful to the Buffy.
Sadly in February my husband and I broke up the group! We made the difficult decision to move across country away from our Buffy family. Strangely the TiVo we had had since the first Buffy dinners died on the move to NY. I think we broke its heart. I wish there were a way to keep that ever faithful weekly routine both for the great conversations and delicious food but it is not to be for now. I miss Sandy's baked meat and would love to relive the dinner where Peter made a collection of soft food (by accident). I was constantly inspired to cook amazing food for these amazing friends because it made them as happy to eat it as it did for me to cook it.
So Buffy gave me my surrogate family for the last 8 years... thanks tv!

Change

No one ever really likes change I guess its how you cope with it that makes all the difference. I have spent a lot of my time lately thinking about this subject because I have recently undergone some huge and unsettling changes which I admit freely I have not done my best to deal with. In the past 6 months my family uprooted ourselves form our very nice life in Seattle and moved our butts all the way to the very tip of Long Island. Big deal right! Did I mention I was 8 months pregnant? Which comes to change number two... new baby! Then we decided to move house again on my due date. Yes we are crazy.

So now we have been in the new lovely big farm house for 3 months and there are still boxes in almost every room of the house. This is my way of not dealing with the fact that I don't really like it here. Don't get me wrong it is a very nice place. If you can overlook the litter! 

Back to not dealing with change again. One way to deal with change is to not compare the new thing with the old thing. That is where you get in to trouble. You see if we had had a shit life in our former city then things would be dreamy here but alas we had a great life. Awesome friends, great neighbors, a cute house, beautiful garden, great stores to shop at, clean green city. We do not yet have these things and some we can't have here. So the question is can we live without them? I do miss the cleanness of Seattle and the fact that people put away their shopping carts. I miss drive through espresso stands and the weather. Laugh all you will but there has been more inches of rain here so far this year than a whole year in Seattle and it is only July! Any way back to change. My husband and I have always joked that we are not very good with change. But it is true. He worked for the same restaurant for 10 years! Have you ever heard of such a thing? So when we do make changes we do them big. Maybe that is why we don't like change!? So as we settle in I look at my 4 yr old and think what are we teaching her? How not to cope with big life changes. Soooo change it is otherwise you are stuck in the day to day of life and you never go any where or do anything. I am hoping to help her make a whole new set of friends and maybe she will help me make some too. 

Everything changes but most things are gradual,  like how your kids grow or your ass expands or your hair goes grey. You buy a new car and then it is an old car. Suddenly you are shopping for school stuff or now I have to buy clothes for my daughter in the big kids section not the section where the sizes are Baby - 5yrs. My usually very active mum can't do half the stuff she wants. When did that happen? So I am changing my attitude about change. Well I'm gonna try. So I wait for the next inevitable change... the leaves and the seasons. At least I know what to expect with that one (insert emoitcon here).

Embrace the change!