Idol and Democracy....

Yesterday, I got back home in time for a long drawn out dinner with the kids, and as we dawdled over dessert, we landed up chatting about politics (Don't ask! The price of having a journalist dad and a consistent discussion of news in the house ). D, my daughter, is pretty serious about Hilary Clinton. My son consistently notes that "Guliani dropped out, right? I like McCain." I suspect the elections are going to be tension-ridden at home! These short chats often lead us to questions on why there are changes in presidents, why are we in Iraq, etc.

From the sublime to the not-so-sublime, since seeing Sanjaya do his thing in American Idol last year, my kids are total American Idol fans. They were fascinated by the sight of seeing a young, brown kid standing up there as part of such a major American media spectacle. It was exhilarating for them and they were hooked. They couldn't believe that he got voted off. Last year, they just asked the question, but didn't quite engage on what the vote meant (well, they were only 3 1/2 years old!) This year, it's fascinating to see them make the connections. They insist they want us to call in as soon as the show is done to vote for their favorites. D has been crest-fallen every time someone she likes gets booted. Yesterday, as the show ended, she moaned, "Amanda Obermeyer -- how could this happen?!! I'm sad." While I wonder about all that TV time, I love that they're so in touch with the singing and dancing. also, I feel we must be doing something right because both kids say, "Jason Castro is there because he looks that way."....precocious/ precious.

The interesting thing was that yesterday, once they got over the shock of Amanda's ouster, they made a bunch of connections.
-> we call
-> other americans call (25 million?)
-> they count the number of calls
-> the bottom 3 sit on the awful 3 stools!
-> you say goodbye to the lowest one!!
AND
-> I guess that's why Rudy Giuliani dropped out....

Such fun to see them make the connections and engage in these conversations!
Roopa
(http://rooparecipes.blogspot.com/)

Difficult discussions

"So, what did spitter do?", asks K, my 4-year old son. The hazards of ubiquitous TV and passing grown-up conversations is that sometimes, the ugliness of public behavior is suddenly thrust on the consciousness of lil' ones. "A bad man", I said, then, "a man who did a bad thing"... clearly not thinking that one through. Of course, that meant that the kids followed up with, "what kind of bad thing." I was able to end the discussion by saying, "he made a lot of people feel bad that they trusted him", and then I challenged them to a race to the toy cupboard, and spent the next hour playing I Spy.

There are the giggles in staff meetings about what Specter paid for his trysts, but it's hard for me not to think about the awful stories of young girls plucked from their families and forced into prostitution. The horribleness of this upsets me, especially as it gets to be discussed more as some kind of antiseptic step in the political chess game. My years serving on the Sakhi board has sensitized me to the many ways that abuse happens. Some day, there's a conversation to be had with my twins, about right and wrong, about victims of crime who become part of the crime, and abuse. I don't want that day to come!
Roopa (http://rooparecipes.blogspot.com/)

Melting Moments

There are so many moments in the day when I'm totally exasperated with my son, little A. He is usually so deeply engrossed in whatever he is doing that he tunes out everything else. When he's making paper planes ( the latest craze, and thankfully a cheap one), he doesn;t hear me telling him to do something, he forgets to pick up a bite of breakfast or to swallow the bite already in his mouth. Drinking milk can take forty five minutes when he's watching Mickey and friends...

And then there are the moments when he reduces me to a little puddle of mush.

He's been having bad dreams for the past few days and we've been so tired that we have given up and bring him into our bed each time. Last night he went through another such episode, on a night when I was dog tired. Later he woke up to use the bathroom. Still later he wanted a drink of water and I yelled at him. Then early this morning, cuddled up next to me, he says, "I feel so safe when you're near me, mamma."

Then when we were both up, he tells me, "Even when I'm as big as Priyesh ( our downstairs neighbour's 9 year old) I'll still play with you. Even when I'm 100 I'll still play with you, mamma."

How cute is that!