This weekend for some reason I was thinking of some parental oddities. Then I watched a Seinfeld re-run and decided that the voices in my head were really shooting off some Seinfeld’isms about parenting. Instead of doing a show on relationships – he should do one about having kids because I bet it would be hilarious. In the meantime, let me give you a few of mine…I’m sure you have some to share too…
a. What’s up with firetrucks??? Face it – we hear the sirens and get all giddy because our kids are going to be SO pumped about it. Hell, I’ve even changed my route to try and find where the siren is coming from. Umm….I guess once we’re parents we forget that the firetruck is en route to someones misfortune. Doh!
b. Curious George. I have issues. Will is obsessed. But really, Curious George gets stolen from the jungle, smoked, drinks and gets thrown in jail. Sounds like Lindsay Lohan’s parents read her tons and tons of CG when she was little. He also causes all kinds of crap and then gets forgiven for it by being cute and making people laugh….are you following me here…George is the kids book version of Lindsay Lohan.
c. Zippers on newborn jammies. Who the hell thought this was a good idea. Rigggght because we aren’t all exhausted enough that we feel like dressing and undressing our newborn 25 times a day. Hmm maybe they’re in cohoots (don’t you love that word) with the diaper companies….blowouts equal changes…need more sleepers….I don’t know. I do know that I tell all my friends to regift the zipper sleepers.
d. Franklin the Turtle. Nope – not complaining about his antics. I have a question though – why do Franklin and Harriet have names but the rest of them…all go by the type of animal that they are?? I bet Bear and Raccoon would WAY rather be Johnny and Vince or something…I’m just saying!
e. Pointing out things while driving. I took a road trip with a friend recently and after an hour, he asked me to stop pointing out the construction trucks and animals on billboards. I wonder what else I do without even noticing. Oh I know – I make a weird noise when I pretend to put salt and pepper on Will’s food – because doing the ‘shhshhshh’ sounds JUST like it and totally tricks him.
All right moms and dads, aunts and uncles….. you know you have your observations too.
So let’s hear them!!!
ERin – in one of the early Wiggles ones…..Jeff drives the car! And he always falls asleep! Ummm hello safety concerns!
oh no Alice – I think there is for something weird with the man in the yellow hat….why doesn’t he have a name? What if he’s not wearing his hat? What then??????? Oooh I don’t know anything about Max and Ruby – but I’ll guess that will come later for us!
As a kid i LOVED curious george, franklin, AND berenstein bears but, in retrospect, they all are a bit odd…
Re-watching Disney movies as an adult is also always a hoot. There are lots of “hidden” things that as an adult you go “ooh….OHHHHHH!” hahahaha
As for snaps vs. zippers…I can hardly button my OWN coat properly I doubt I’d be able to do a babies at whatever god-awful-time in the middle of the night it is. However, I distinctly remember being “zipped” in the chin as a kid so my kids would probably just go naked!!! Or, like Tracey said, with a nightgown and then pull-on clothes.
I love Curious George because he is naughty and nothing about the book is politically correct.
Berenstain Bears are the opposite of Franklin. Brother and Sister bear don’t have names but everyone else does.
I can get over that by the simple fact that Michael Cera is brother bear.
(And Camilla Scott is Mama…am I the only one who watched her talk show??)
I loved the zippers also, much preferred them to the snaps. I’m seen to be visually/spatially challenged and the snaps rarely worked out the first time.
The man with the yellow hat was plain weird…..it’s all weird really.
I think the pointing things out is good….also, Socratic dialogue with your kids, at their level of course.
I’ve ALWAYS wondered where Max & Ruby’s parents are.
The Wiggles????? Need I say more.
At least Franklin’s theme song is sung by Bruce Cockburn (my first concert – I was a dancing fetus at the time – for real!).
Here’s mine (I think it’s good but it gets tedious) – naming & parroting back emotions to kids. For example, “You’re feeling frustrated and angry because Fiona took the puppy and you wanted it”.
Okay, you don’t think the man in the yellow hat is so freaky after all?
How about this one – WHERE ARE MAX & RUBY’S PARENTS?
Oh my goodness, I HATED all those onesies with zips OR snaps. For nighttime I used those nightgowns with the elastic/drawstring at the bottom until the Littles were just too big to wear them, and then went straight to pull-on jammie pants.
This post was funny!
Definitely the zippers. HATED snaps.
I have an 11 and nearly 8 year-old and I STILL find myself rocking sometimes. Gently, back and forth. Rocking a baby that IS NOT THERE! Sometimes I still use a Silly Mommy Voice and my kids, far too mature to tolerate my antics, call me out on it, “MOM! That is SO annoying/embarassing!” So, mostly, I have been forced to stop all of the things you do when your kids are little for fear of being abandoned by those very children I started them for!
THAT is hilarious!
Agree with you on the snaps…I don’t think they made zippers in those days…also,
I was caught cutting a friend’s meat when she came over for dinner…she was
looking at me oddly as I continued to talk about whatever topic we were on…finally
realized she was staring…too used to cutting children’s meat I guess!!
I also preferred the zippers on sleepers. So much easier than snaps…which I almost always did up wrong.
but dude – then they’re trapped and you have to unzip from the top and take them all out except arms….the snaps….well frankly I’d leave ’em open like a dress….for the midnight changes…NOW, I’m all about the zippers when I don’t have to change in the middle of the night!
well Alice remember the man with the Yellow Hat first stole him to brin ghis to the zoo! but there are some shades of Bubbles and MJ with the living arrangements after….
I have bigger concerns with Curious George, frankly – hwat is up with the man in the yellow hat?! What grown man dresses all in bright yellow and no one thinks it’s odd? and he brings home a monkey to be his life companion and again, no one thinks he might just be a WEE bit off? Really. In real life, we would be fully creeped out by this guy, and maybe calling the SPCA to investigate what he is up to with that simian adoptee.
Trains – I find myself saying “oh look there’s a train” and then realize there isn’t anyone driving with me!! I have also caught my husband doing the same thing when it’s just us in the car….we spend far to much time with our kids!
As for Franklin my kids learned “stupid” from Harriet…real nice!! I do love the show but sometimes kid don’t get the real meaning behind it… I prefer snaps over zippers – my kids have caught a few on their chubby legs or chins! and snaps – I do the bottoms up to the waste up when I fold the laundry and always start from the bottom to top and you never miss them (amazing what you learn after three) and I hide the veggies under the rice so when they get a scoop of food their covered up!
Oh see – I preferred the zippered jammies. Especially at nighttime.
It was so much easier to zip it down then up during those eyes-half-open middle of the night changes. Otherwise I’d be fumbling with snaps for longer than needed to be.
I know I have plenty but I am blank right now…will be back!
Those are some good ones, Sara.
To add to the Franklin mystery, my daughter brought home a french book with her favourite turtle, and it turns out that in our other official language he’s Benjamin. How is that not confusing for a five year old (and her mother??)