a peek inside the fishbowl

by Mark

When Andrea told me that she was off to Jamaica, the first thing I did was book some time off for the week that she was away. I had time left over from last year and I needed to use it up. I took 3 afternoons off and 2 full days so I could be there to pick up the kids after school. As it turned out, Sarah had a field trip today and I was able to volunteer. Her class was going skating at the neighbourhood rink.

Parent volunteers were asked to be at the school for 8:30 AM but since I walk the kids to school for 8 AM, I wasn’t sure what do with that half hour. I quickly ran down to the Village and grabbed myself a much needed coffee. Oh coffee ! Sweet life affirming elixir of the gods. How I thank thee for the grace and patience you have bestowed upon me this day.

At 8:30 I walked into Sarah’s class and was delighted to see everyone quietly reading. I joined Sarah and her friends and watched Sarah read a book, content with my choice to just blend in and enjoy the moment. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of sitting in the teacher’s chair (It was just a chair…how was I to know). My decision to sit in “the chair” gave the teacher a great idea. “Let’s have Sarah’s Dad read story to us all”. So much for just blending in.

I enjoyed reading the story. Sarah made a point of telling me that I had to hold the book so the class could see the pictures, so I got to impress the teacher with my ability to read upside down. The best part of all was how proud Sarah was that her Dad was up there reading to all her classmates. She’s been so excited about me volunteering in her class and it was the icing on the cake that I read to her class.

After story we all piled onto the bus for the short trip to the Rink. I haven’t been on a school bus in years and I pleased so see that the seats are now padded right to the top. When I was a boy and I took the bus, the top of the seat featured a metal bar. Many of the kids (… mostly the idiot boys….ok…ok… I was one of them) on our bus used to rest their teeth on the metal bar to feel the vibration of the bus in their heads. This was great fun until the bus would hit a bump and you would smash your teeth into the bar. How I kept my teeth intact through my childhood I will never know.

Once at the rink, there were skates to tie, helmets to snap on and hands to hold as everyone whizzed around the rink. Everyone did quite well and most of the kids were well behaved. I give credit to the teachers that have a great amount of patience with the kids. The children really respect them and listen to them. (Case in point, two of the children were goofing around when I read story and they came up to me after to apologize to me).

It melts my heart to see how proud Sarah was to introduce me to her friends. She was over the moon with delight that I was there and loved being to able to skate with her Dad. It’s this kind of day that reminds me of how lucky I am.

by Mark

I was just reviewing the list of “topics for Mark to blog about”. I have to admit to being mildly annoyed at Andrea for steering the content of the blog for the week. I guess, I interpreted it as giving the impression that I wouldn’t know what to talk about.

I’ve been resisting giving a laundry list of my activities and how busy I’ve been. But then if there is one thing I’ve learned working in the TV business for so many years it’s “know your audience”. So here without further ado are the responses to your requests.

In terms of connecting to the children, I find that really ANY activity I do with them is perceived as valuable to them. It took me a while to appreciate this but they don’t seem to care what the activity is, as long as they are doing it with their Dad. I do play games with them and I try my best not to say No, no matter the game (which is amusing when I’m playing the Disney princess game and I have to wear the jewelry). But for what it’s worth here’s some things I did with them this week: took them to a movie, went to Cosmic Adventures, went to the Museum, took them out to dinner and took them to swim lessons.

I have to confess though, I’ve been pretty beat at the end of the day these past few days. It’s non-stop and I don’t know where they get their boundless energy.

Do I see myself as a feminist ? Hmmm…I would say that I’m not a guy’s guy. I never really have been. I’m not much into watching sports on TV (I like hockey and golf but I can take it or leave it most times). I do find myself rolling my eyes and trying to escape to a safe corner in our house when the 3 of them start goofing around and shrieking. It’s the shrieking I can’t take at times. But then I got what I asked for, I wanted daughters. If we had another, I’d want another girl.

Sharing the bathroom with 3 women is fortunately not an issue (yet). I know it will be someday but right now, they are not hogging the washroom or taking an inordinate amount of time (yet).

Do some rules relax when Andrea’s not around ? Sometimes. I try to be consistent with our philosophies but sure some of the rules relax. I suspect Andrea relaxes the rules when I’m not around (like the time they had a big piece of cake for breakfast). But for what it’s worth, the girls have not watched any TV this week, they haven’t eaten in the living room, and they haven’t stayed up late.

How is my care different than Andrea’s? I think we both have a pretty similar style. I’m not sure if that just happens with a couple and they get on the same page. That used to drive me crazy about my parents (Hi Mom. Hi Dad). They were united on every issue. I suspect they disagreed about some things in private but whatever the issue was they were together on it. Ultimately, I think that’s a good thing. It provides some consistency. Although, I have certainly used the “go ask your mother line” when I’m not comfortable saying no.

What have I learned about myself since having girls ? I’ve definitely changed for the better. I’m sure that happens to most people when they have kids. It certainly something that grounds you. Having girls around here, I certainly feel loved. In the past 6 years I’ve received more kisses than in the past 30 ! Sometimes it feels like it’s a little too much but I always try to remember that there will be a day when I wish I could be kissed so much again. FYI, I am no longer allowed to grow facial hair as it interferes with all the kissing around this house !

by Mark

Sitting at the dinner table last night and Sarah (age 6) says to her sister “Emma stop being so pugnacious!” With my forkful of food halfway on it’s way into my mouth, I withdraw said forkful and said “Pugnacious?… okay, what do think Pugnacious means Sarah” to which she replied “it means somebody who likes to fight”.

The fork was still suspended midway between my plate and mouth as I processed this sudden leap in my children’s vocabulary. “That’s correct…and where have you heard the word pugnacious before?”. The answer: “Word Girl!”. For those of you who might not be familiar, Word Girl is a fantastic kids show on PBS that features a superhero little girl who uses words and definitions to fight evil doers. It’s a very well done show and I have to confess a comedic attraction to Captain Huggy Face the monkey sidekick. The girls often pause the show and call me to come in and watch the Captain Huggy Face parts of the show.

Which brings me to the point of this post. At what point did Cartoons become educational AND well-produced. I make that distinction because when I was a kid most of the educational cartoons were crap and the regular cartoons really did not have much in the way of redeeming social value.

I can’t think of a single thing that I learned from the cartoons when I was kid…but wait maybe I’m wrong. I did learn the following:

-Anvils are extremely common items and they were used only for dropping on heads. I don’t think I had a clue what an anvil was even used for until I hit 30.

-Related to my last point. All problems were solved with violence. It was the de facto standard. Had a problem with someone. Frying pan to the face. Problem solved.

-Most homes in cartoons were enormous. When Fred Flintstone was running in his house, it had to be easily the length of 3 football fields. I mean really. Count the numbers of “table… chair… lamp… table… chair… lamp” he runs by !

-The laws of gravity NEVER applied. NEVER. I have a good friend who spent too much time reading comic books and decided that it must be possible to go down the stairs without both feet touching them (much like the drawings always showed with both feet in the air at the same time). I still laugh out loud when I picture his family sitting in the living room as he came tumbling down the stairs and landed in a heap at the bottom.

-Children of the 1960’s and 1970’s were not discriminating in their choice of programming. I mean really…Hercules, Rocket Robin Hood, Max the 2000 year old Mouse, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. I could go on. Watch them today, it’s beyond me how they ever made it to air.

To be fair, when I was kid I loved all these cartoons and continued to love them longer than any sane adult should. When I was a teenager and in my early 20’s most of these cartoons became cool simply BECAUSE they were bad. I still can’t help watching Hercules when it’s on. It’s so bad, it’s good ! …and Gumby and Pokey ! Of course, I’d never let the kids watch that garbage. What a big waste of their time !

So how about you. What awful kids shows did you watch as a child ? HR PufnStuf ? Land of the Lost ? The Banana Splits ?