Naturally I exaggerate. But next Tuesday I do have my 30th birthday. I’m getting a wee bit paranoid about it. Kind of like I really do expect the world to end. I’m sort of wondering if I need to stock up on canned food and batteries in anticipation.
So for this week’s post, in conjunction with Keely’s (at The UnMom) Random Tuesday Thoughts, how about we talk about things that have nothing at all to do with my aging-related freak out?
Sound good? Yes, I know it does.
Let’s talk about John and Kate. Why? Because it’s the huge deal right now, and since bloggers (big and small) are the recorders of social history on the micro level, we pretty much have to. Raise your hand if you saw their split coming... Looking around the room, I see that I have plenty of company. I talked about this during RTT before, but I still maintain that any time two people hate each other as much as these two appeared to, it’s better if they aren’t together. Much better for the kids to not have to see it. And I can only imagine how tough the last several months have been for two people, who are just people, and not actors, to pretend that things aren’t so bad. So it must be a huge relief to them. Even though it’s terribly sad.
Is it possible that the show prevented them from moving past normal annoyances with each other, since it encouraged them to air them repeatedly for dramatic purposes, and anyone knows that the more you talk about something you don’t like about someone the more annoying it is? I’d say so. (To this day the phrase “Just out of curiosity…” can raise the hair up on the back of my neck. Although that’s a story for another day.) If they were not on TV, would they have maybe gotten some marriage counseling and learned not to belittle (Kate) and disrespect (John) each other? Quite possibly. But who knows. This being television there could still be all sorts of behind the scenes discussions that we know nothing about and there could still be a big reconciliation for the season finale. So now that I’ve discussed the big D decision that’s the last you’ll hear about them from me. Unless of course there’s a reconciliation, and then I’ll need to air my two cents again.
Let’s talk about the show “Ni Hao, Kai-lan!”, which I believe is a Nick Jr. production, although we only get to see it on video. It is surprisingly delightful. I carefully vet the DVDs that I let my girls watch, not for educational content, but for scary stuff and values. As I have mentioned, I am not a SpongeBob fan. At least not for children. I think he’s pretty funny, but we don’t watch him because he is Not Nice to the other characters. I turn off shows that talk about more mature topics, not because I think the girls don't need to know about people being selfish, and making fun of others, and death, and divorce, and people losing their jobs, and other realities of life, but because they are only 1 and 3 (no matter how close to 2 and 4 they might be), and I think they should have a few years of oblivion where they think the world is always a happy place. Just my opinion, of course, as is everything I ever post (unless I’m talking about the fabulosity of my children, in which case everything I write is the gospel truth).
So, at first I was not too pleased that the characters on "Ni Hao, Kai-Lan!" seem to get unreasonably upset whenever anything doesn’t go their way. Lose a race? Stomp off and kick your dragon boat onto the top of a pagoda. The waves keep washing away part of your sandcastle? Don’t move it, throw a royal hissy and kick over the whole thing. It seemed like it was just showing my children that they should massively freak out over everything, and they already have no problems expressing their disappointment or displeasure. But it turns out that it has a really good message. "When you feel too mad, what's the first thing that you do? Calm...calm...down!" It's accompanied by hand motions. Now if one of my girls starts to get all cranky, all I have to do is sing "Calm....calm....DOWN!" It's like magic. Therefore I recommend this show to EVERYONE.
And may I also recommend you head here for more Random Tuesday Thoughts? You'll take me up on that recommendation? Awesome.
4 comments:
Ni-Hao is a favorite in our house too :) I think the majority of bloggers probably touched on the J&K issue today. Overwhelmingly, it seems like no one was surprised this happened.
I may have to try that show. Does the calm down method also work for toddlers who can't get over the fact that there's no bananas in the house?
oooooh, I would be interested to find out, Jen! I find that showing the girls the empty banana basket gets them to face reality, but does nothing to soothe the despair.
Just READING the mantra "Calm, calm DOWN" worked for me... :)
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