In my husband’s eyes, our daughter was showing great promise. For years, she watched mainly Batman and the Justice League; she preferred cars over dolls and she actually asked to have a Captain America figurine on her birthday cake even though Cinderella was right beside the man in star spangled tights.
To my husband, the unconventional taste of our daughter was something to be happy about. It’s like an assurance that she’d never grow up like other girls in frills and skirts, some of whom end up with huge Avon bills for daddy and long lines of salivating packs of testosterone at the gate. Then again, my husband was a popular kid in school so he doesn’t know that unconventional girls in school are the butt of all pranks and don’t fit anywhere, not even on the walls as wallpaper, leaving them to wonder if they were really alien babies switched at birth. Yes, weird kids pray every night for spaceships to come along and take them to a home where weirdness is the norm.
Fortunately (or unfortunately) there’s been a switch in our kid’s interests lately. After initially showing reluctance at watching singing mermaids, dancing chambermaids and effeminately beautiful prince charmings, she finally agreed to watch some of Disney’s fairy tales. Disney must have invested on hypnotic techniques because she is hooked and is now singing Under the Sea, not knowing that in reality it should really be Under the Oil Spill. Well, at least our kid doesn’t have to think she’s an alien and she can now relate to girls her age when they talk about the latest fashion in pink and baby blue.
Of course, there is a price for normalcy. It is now my responsibility to find a way to tell her that people don’t get married and run off into the sunset after meeting only once and singing to each other in chirping voices. People meet; fall head over heels over each other’s nice teeth, eyes, brains and pleasing personality; grow sick and tired of each other then either stab each other in the back or muster the will needed to crawl (after all that tiresome running) to that sunset together.
Then of course there are babies, rising costs of everything, unemployment and the husband’s former officemate with better vital statistics to think about…
my pseudo-roommates had a cartoon marathon last week. they watched things like Little Mermaid 3 (which I never knew existed) and most of the Barbie movies. i didn’t join them, although i did watch the end of LM3, hahahaha.
huh? there’s a little mermaid 3? what’s the title? hehe. ok, since i’m always beside my kid, i’ve been infected too 🙂
there’s even a Cinderella 3. It’s called A Twist in Time.
hehe. i’m gonna look for them and watch them. 🙂
i admit that these cartoons really have magnetic force in luring the viewers. i was even hooked accompanying my little sister watching them.the probable reason i think is the fact that there is no impossibility in cartoons which, as limited the humans are, suits the desire of man for a different reality. i guess that’s the basic premise in which the cartoons are made…and you must always guide your daughter in highlighting the points of what is real and what is not.i just cant imagine your daughter or my sister meeting their prince charming (shokoy) in their dreams.hehehe
hahaha. i echo your sentiments totomel. that would be a shock indeed.
i also feel the same way about cartoons being an alternative to reality. i guess in my case, it’s a welcome balm. the real challenge is not to get carried away. sigh
yep! little mermaid 3! it’s sort of a prequel to the first little mermaid.
hehe sophia likes princessy stuff now? good for her! 🙂