by Brian
Most parents I know try to get their kids to watch less television. It seems nearly everyone struggles with their kids watching too much ‘content’, whether on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram. The interesting revelation for us was that today’s youth, including our children, have very little patience. When given the choice, a 30-minute sitcom is not something they willingly sit through. Throw in that our kids also don’t understand realistic drama or romance stories and they genuinely dislike violence and harsh language. We found ourselves wanting them to gain experience and some tolerance for life by watching a bit more TV.
Growing up they really enjoyed watching Blue’s Clues, Dora, and a few other popular shows of the time. Perhaps Blue’s Clues repeating the same episode 5 days a week was the early version of binge watching shows that we are all too familiar with these days. I remember when we used to go out and play with friends in the neighborhood when I was young, but I digress.
You have probably figured out by now that our kids are not typical. Sure, they like watching funny, short Youtube video clips like the rest of us, but have never really liked TV or movies. I remember watching season 1 of The Mandalorian with Alex and JJ. I am kind of a Star Wars nerd and although Dylan and Jolee politely said “no thanks” to watching, I was glad to share this time with my niece and nephew. There have been very few things that Dylan and Jolee have enjoyed watching with us.
They did (and still) enjoy watching ICarly and Victorious, which were the first semi-grown up shows that they both watched with any consistency. Truth be told, I enjoyed the goofy storylines and characters nearly as much as they did. I guess it is probably not surprising that we settled on silly comedies as our guilty family pleasure. Dylan and Jolee often confuse humor with someone being mean or inappropriate. For this reason, we usually do better with exaggerated comedy shows and movies. The farther from reality the better, even Naked Gun was a hit with Dylan though I am certain he missed most of the crude humor as he laughed aloud at the silliness of Leslie Nielsen.
Shortly after moving into our apartments last year, we decided to schedule recurring family time to watch shows together. Early Saturday or Sunday evenings worked best where we could spend some time together making dinner, talking about our week and watching a show. In late June, we stumbled across a show called “Man vs Bee.” It is a 9-episode Netflix show starring Rowan Atkinson, where the Mr. Bean star goes toe to stinger with an insect while house sitting for a very rich couple. Suffice it to say that chaos and laughter ensues. Since it uses physical comedy rather than verbal comedy, the kids can better understand the meaning of the jokes.
Other than seeing their smiles and hearing their laughs, my favorite part of these family nights is talking about what we just watched. What was their funniest part, can you believe “that” actually happened, or how can Trevor (Atkinson) be that crazy? The irony (and education) comes from discussing the show as a somewhat crazy comparison to real life. We can ask the kids questions like “how could Trevor have handled that situation better?” or even “would either of you ever want to take care of someone’s house or pet as your job?”.
More recently we started watching Monsters at Work, a Disney channel adaptation of the popular Monsters, Inc. movie. We are a couple of years late to this party, but so glad to see it still has Billy Crystal and John Goodman adding their comic geniuses to this animated series. It has been entertaining our odd family and provides us with more family time and topics to discuss. Turns out they recently greenlit a season 2 to come out later this year and rumor has it that another season of Man vs. Bee may be in the works. Lucky us.