television

Our three-year-old son loves minions. He has never seen Despicable Me, but who doesn’t love a little yellow guy with funny eyes, a bald head and crazy manners. Plus, when McDonald’s offers free toys it’s amazing how well acquainted a toddler can become. So last week when Despicable Me 2 arrived on video, I decided to rent it for the family (after all, my husband and I had been waiting for this day for quite some time).

While it wasn’t as good as the first movie, that meant nothing to my son. He enjoyed watching the minions in action and asked all sorts of questions, especially when these little good guys went bad. I could tell he was a bit disturbed at the craziness of the purple minions, but he seemed okay with everything as all was set right in movie land.

Unfortunately, three days later my little guy came down with some bug and up shot his fever. For a child prone to ear infections, taking fever reducers is nothing new and our son is a champ in this department. But Friday afternoon, he sobbed and cried and insisted that he didn’t want to take his medicine. I finally coaxed (okay, forced) him into downing the syringe full of good stuff, but he was still distraught. After he calmed down a bit he fessed up to his angst against the meds, his reason being, “I didn’t want to turn into a purple minion.”

So there you have it. . . And why shouldn’t he be afraid of turning into a purple minion? One syringe full of gel was all it took in the movie so why not real life? We did explain to him the difference between pretend (“pretwin” in his lingo) and reality; and we also assured him that we would never ever think of turning him into a mean purple minion. (He can manage that on his own some days.)

That being said, it’s moments like these that make me mindful of what I put in front of my child’s eyes, ears and mind. This was a great reminder of how differently children view the world and that we should strive to keep our little ones innocent as long as possible.

I visited my Mom several days this week, and she is one of those people in this world who refuses to pay for television (what we fondly call an Amish TV watcher – I mean no disrespect). While I believe her ideas are founded, I’m not sure I can do without Project Runway, House Hunters and Design Star in my life. As for me and my house, we shall watch cable.

Well, you can imagine just how far my eyes rolled when Mom got excited Sunday evening the moment she realized it was Downton Abbey night. I’ve been reading all the hype and hearing about this riveting program for a while now but figured it was just for those stuffy intellectual types, people with a British accent or people who have no other choice because they refuse to subscribe to cable — i.e., my Mom (no, she’s neither stuffy nor British). I even learned one important thing before the show even began – it’s Downton Abbey (one “w”), not Dowtown Abbey (Oops, my bad. But sounds the same when you have Southern roots). To my surprise, it was a quick moving and interesting show about a used-to-be rich family struggling to keep the manor afloat, the soap operaish lives of their house staff and the day-to-day life of the surrounding community. In a word, it was “good.” Drats, now I may have to rent seasons one and two just to catch up with these crazy folks and see where it all began.

So Monday night rolled around, and Mom got really excited because apparently this is, as she put it, her favorite night of TV. Yes, you guessed it, more public broadcasting, this time filled with new episodes of Antiques Roadshow and Market Warriors. Again, a very good night of television — one that HGTV might find hard to beat.

Who knew PBS rocks? Maybe it was because I didn’t have much of a choice, or perhaps I was trying to humor my mother, or dare I say, it was just good entertainment. . . I’ll let you know when I figure it out, but right now I need to set my DVR to PBS.

Tag: television

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