Zack's show is Between the Lions. It comes on at 2pm, and we really started watching it because when the summer began we needed a little extra structure to our routine and this was a good quiet activity right before naptime. Guess I'm lucky they put something good in that time slot or I might have been watching (God forbid) Barney.
It's really a cute show, and educational, blah blah blah. It appeals to boys, which I've read is important since school is more girl-friendly. It uses some made up stories and some classic literature (Zack has been playing Daedalus and Icarus this week...). And he's clearly picking up quite a bit of reading skill from it. It is just that he's just a little too obsessed with it. At nine in the morning he begins asking if it's time for Between the Lions. If allowed, he will ask 47 more times before lunch. We have a DVR that we got in the middle of the summer, so it's not like we are going to miss any of it anymore, which I've explained ad nauseum. I had to start telling him that if it became something so distracting that he couldn't do anything else, we'd probably have to quit watching it so we can enjoy the rest of the day. That was big time, and he quit asking. Of course, he does MENTION that he knows it's not yet time for Between the Lions, which isn't asking, nothing like it at all. This might be an empty threat, since I'm quite relieved when it's finally time for it, but maybe not. I did quit listening to "his" music in the car when he became so fixated on it that he refused all conversation ("Mommy, could you not talk to me so I can listen to my music" from a three year old?? I don't think so. We've got plenty of years for that later.)
And here we reach the real problem. I watch so much of Between the Lions (more than anything else actually, even Martha, gasp!) that *I* have it on the brain as well. That might be ok if my brain were it tip-top shape, but if you've attempted to have a conversation with me you know that isn't the case. For example, I frequently lie down after the marathon of kitchen cleanup, lunch prep for tomorrow, laundry folding, and debrief with James to find I have been singing "Hung Up on H" in my head and can't stop. When I hear something is "a rack for luggage", I sing "And that's why it's called a luggage rack!", Cliff Hanger style. We, along with another couple with a similarly aged son, once spent and *extended* adult conversation explaining the show to a newly married, childless couple (bet they were thrilled).
But the worst part, and the clearest indication that I have a real problem, is that I am constantly reminding myself of the show's Walter and Clay Pigeon. I hear in my broken sentences their pause and "uuuh..." before the final word of every single thought.
I can't finish a sentence anyway (perhaps my brain is full as well?), and now every time I'm stopped in my tracks by the evaporation of a word or thought, I hear myself echoing those ridiculous pigeons.
I have pigeon... uuuh... brain? Yeah - brain.
It's really a cute show, and educational, blah blah blah. It appeals to boys, which I've read is important since school is more girl-friendly. It uses some made up stories and some classic literature (Zack has been playing Daedalus and Icarus this week...). And he's clearly picking up quite a bit of reading skill from it. It is just that he's just a little too obsessed with it. At nine in the morning he begins asking if it's time for Between the Lions. If allowed, he will ask 47 more times before lunch. We have a DVR that we got in the middle of the summer, so it's not like we are going to miss any of it anymore, which I've explained ad nauseum. I had to start telling him that if it became something so distracting that he couldn't do anything else, we'd probably have to quit watching it so we can enjoy the rest of the day. That was big time, and he quit asking. Of course, he does MENTION that he knows it's not yet time for Between the Lions, which isn't asking, nothing like it at all. This might be an empty threat, since I'm quite relieved when it's finally time for it, but maybe not. I did quit listening to "his" music in the car when he became so fixated on it that he refused all conversation ("Mommy, could you not talk to me so I can listen to my music" from a three year old?? I don't think so. We've got plenty of years for that later.)
And here we reach the real problem. I watch so much of Between the Lions (more than anything else actually, even Martha, gasp!) that *I* have it on the brain as well. That might be ok if my brain were it tip-top shape, but if you've attempted to have a conversation with me you know that isn't the case. For example, I frequently lie down after the marathon of kitchen cleanup, lunch prep for tomorrow, laundry folding, and debrief with James to find I have been singing "Hung Up on H" in my head and can't stop. When I hear something is "a rack for luggage", I sing "And that's why it's called a luggage rack!", Cliff Hanger style. We, along with another couple with a similarly aged son, once spent and *extended* adult conversation explaining the show to a newly married, childless couple (bet they were thrilled).
But the worst part, and the clearest indication that I have a real problem, is that I am constantly reminding myself of the show's Walter and Clay Pigeon. I hear in my broken sentences their pause and "uuuh..." before the final word of every single thought.
I can't finish a sentence anyway (perhaps my brain is full as well?), and now every time I'm stopped in my tracks by the evaporation of a word or thought, I hear myself echoing those ridiculous pigeons.
I have pigeon... uuuh... brain? Yeah - brain.
Just wait until Z learns how to sneak downstairs in the middle of the night to watch a week's worth of Between the Lions! Wait, that's something I would do, not Z....
ReplyDeleteIf it's any consolation, I find myself humming children's songs all day long.
As one half of that newly married, childless couple, I was facinated by the topic. However, I'm a sucker for puns and wordplay.
ReplyDelete