Curmudgeonly Ramblings
I want to blog about this so badly even though, on the face of it, it seems irrelevant to my life. When I read it, though, I found myself really identifying with the issue of dealing with curmudgeons because I feel that it is so similar to something a lot of moms experience. There is a definite hierarchy of parenting styles ranging from anti-technology to very pro-technology. Not that I care, I’m just saying. I don’t care, because I’m very pro-technology. The only parents who really care and get all desperate about it are in the anti- camp because they think we’re going to be impressed or something. Nobody cares. We just feel sorry for their kids because they’re irrelevant in their culture.
It is 2008. It is the information age and, frankly, there’s no going back. There’s not going to be an anti-information movement that will take away our internet tubes. Children who grow up now are tech-savvy. And there is nothing wrong with that. I don’t get overtly criticized (to my face, anyway) for the fact that my kids blog and they make youtube videos, but I know that some people think they’re better mothers than me and my friends because they withhold technology while we dole it out freely like so many little Ritalin pills. These are the people who would hear my kids say something about some tv show or video game or website and they would make a judgement right then and there that our family is less, well, wholesome? or whatever and then they would avoid us. Except, not really. They wouldn’t avoid us because then how would they get off on saying, “Spongebob? Never heard of it; we only watch PBS.” And then I would have to bitch about how annoying that little Canadian fucker Caillou is. I mean, my god, that kid’s voice makes me want to shoot up the joint and then declare war on Canada. It’s almost embarrassing how much I hate that kid.
Anyway, I don’t really have time to flesh this out into a real, thought-provoking post with, like, stuff to back up my opinions and whatnot, but I’m just trying to say that our children’s culture is important and should be respected. Can you imagine being the only kid in class who didn’t know how to rat your bangs so they would stick way the hell up? That was our culture and I’m glad I didn’t miss it.
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Oh, yeah?!? Well, you just wait ’till the oil runs out and the water boils, or turns to blood, or whatever it is, and there IS no technology anymore! Then you’ll be sorry! Because your kids, well, then they’ll have to learn how to function without a screen, and let me tell you, it will NOT BE PRETTY!
I don’t know what I’m talking about. But this: “I do believe that the day of the curmudgeons is over. Their stewardship of the future has failed.” SNORT!
July 24th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Maybe rattin’ your bangs was your culture-I actually had to click on that cause I didn’t even know what you were referring to! You are cussing rather freely today-is this a new way to get hits..come hither and read the filthy mouthed ex-christian? I like it!!
July 24th, 2008 at 8:43 am
To be fair, our kids have a culture full of adorable little Japanese characters and our culture was ratted bangs. Which is to say, our kids win.
I wish you were around back when Noah was a preschooler and his Waldorf friends were appalled that he watched Sesame Street because you know, there was a time when Noah was the bad influence in the homeschool circles what with him warbling “Elmo’s World!” and wearing shirts with Cookie Monster on them. (I remember one heated online debate turned flamewar about whether or not it was ok to let kids wear television characters — any characters — on their bodies. The answer to that, by the way, is no and only bad parents let their kids do it.)
July 24th, 2008 at 8:47 am
I agree with everything in your post, but mostly I want to join in on the Caillou-hating. What PBS exec thought a cartoon about a whiney, rude, tantrum-throwing, bald preschooler and his enabling parents was a cool idea?
I think his mom should be put on suicide watch. She has to deal with those two awful kids, and it looks like she’s really let herself go.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:41 am
this shit…
“They wouldn’t avoid us because then how would they get off on saying, “Spongebob? Never heard of it; we only watch PBS.” And then I would have to bitch about how annoying that little Canadian fucker Caillou is. I mean, my god, that kid’s voice makes me want to shoot up the joint and then declare war on Canada. It’s almost embarrassing how much I hate that kid.”
…is the reason i keep reading. i hate that kid too and wow, is noggin really the end-of-days warning you were expecting? yeah, me neither.
July 24th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Honestly, I don’t know who Caillou is but that may be because my kids are too old to want to watch it. Right now Pete’s watcing Futerama which I hate. (he’s 20)
Oh, I was going to write about technology. I love it but have to fight with it some cause it gets the best of me. Tom’s XBox just developed it’s second set of dreaded red rings,he plays with I have no idea who online (violent war games, some people hate that he can do that too)and yes he has a my space. Not that any of that excites me but I’m too old to fight about it and I’d probably lose anyhow.
July 24th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Especially when celebs say it. I read an article by Helen Hunt who said her 4 year old has “never seen a frame of tv or video”. There is just nothing good enough for her child. She just paints and enjoys nature. Yeah, because you made tons of money off tv so you don’t have to work.
Without school house rock I would never have memorized the pre-amble to the constitution. True story.
July 25th, 2008 at 12:13 am
If I was so high and mighty as to remove the TV from my children, then how would I get time to read your lovely blog? Now that would be devastating! Who else is going to teach me to swear so coherently? Gordon Ramsey is on too late for me to watch. See, you’re helping out an isolated Aussie mama here! With a little help from Elmo too.
July 26th, 2008 at 12:05 am
i’m weird, i’ll admit it…i actually kinda like caillou. and i’m the only one that i’ve ever met that can say that. LOL! well maybe like is too strong of a word…he just doesn’t bug me, shall we say. everyone i’ve ever discussed him with always goes on about his whining and whatnot…but i really just don’t mind him. he’s a pretty normal 4 yr old from my experience. well they don’t all whine like that but a whole lot do…including my daughter (when she was his age and still at 7.5 sometimes)…so it just seems normal to me. and his mom i find very refreshing because she’s not a svelt size3. she’s shaped like a real mom. i love that. the clothes are a little weird, but she IS a cartoon, LOL!
i do agree with you about anti-technology though. i don’t get it. especially in this day and age. just seems unrealistic. but i do have respect for those that limit or even cut out tv from their kids lives. i couldn’t do it but i don’t think its a bad thing. realistically, its just for a short period of their lives…they’ll get it plenty when they’re older, i guarantee. so why would it be bad to cut it out when they are little and instead encourage them to play? just wish i had the guts to do it more myself.
the anti-computer/internet thing is a bit much for my way of thinking though…because i do think the computer and the internet are extremely educational and i agree, its here to stay. heck, so’s tv. but again, they’ll get it plenty when they’re older, i’m sure. and will pick it up fast too, i bet. but in our house, our kids were whiz’s at the computer mouse by the time they were 2, and i also don’t think THAT’s a bad thing, either.
August 4th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Oh, I gotta agree with you on Caillou. That kid needs to be shot. I have blocked Caillou - along with the Night Garden and Fifi and the Flowertots. Those shows make me want to throw myself onto pointy sticks.
Alana
August 15th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
I LOVE your Blog … but what I love even more is Caillou.
Addison is obsessed with him and so am I. Mike and I are on the hunt for a Caillou soundtrack for our car. My fav song is…”I love my mama, I love my daddy, and I love my little sister too…tag you’re it. We can dance and clap our hands…blow a kiss and say, “hoo hoo!”
August 15th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Oh my god, Jill. I will kill you if you sing that on my blog again.