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January 14, 2006

Blue's Clues: It's Oddly Entertaining

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So, one day I sat down with my daughter and pressed the big "TiVo" button, which makes her excited because when the green TiVo character comes onto the screen, she knows what time of the day it is: "BLUE'S CLUES TIME!"

Yes, like many babies and preschool children, my daughter loves the cartoon blue dog, the ultra-friendly and seemingly rediculously ignorant host Joe, and the simple and bright colors and animation.

And it was about ten minutes into the kiddie show when I came to a horrifying realization: my seven-month old daughter was turned around completely away from the television and in her own little world, and I had been sitting on the couch, completely fascinated by the "Blue's Clues" episode on the screen. My daughter couldn't have cared less what Blue and Joe were learning about that day ("Shapes"), and I was captivated by my new favorite morning TV show.

That was six weeks ago.

And yet, every day, I look forward to sitting down with a glass of tea, holding my daughter and watching our "friends" who converse back and forth with us from the television! Wow, sometimes I feel like they're talking...DIRECTLY TO ME!

And I'm learning - I mean "my daughter" is learning - all kinds of interesting things about life! How to be a "shape searcher," how to find interesting things to do when "waiting in line." I even learn - I mean "she" even learns - about all kinds of interesting cultural events and I realize, "Haunikah is COOL! Why don't WE celebrate that?? Do you HAVE to be Jewish?? Maybe WE should have a Haunikah party!"

Thinking about all this, I'm sure there must be some sort of meaningful metaphor about life in all of this. Perhaps "Blue's Clues" is giving me an interesting way of projecting my inner child. Or perhaps it's watching the simplicity of the pre-school show that makes one realize that maybe we have so much complications to our lives and it's really not making our lives or our world any better. Maybe if life were simpler, we would get along better. Maybe we would have less wars, maybe we'd learn to share. Maybe we'd all celebrate Haunikah!

Of course, all of that stuff I'll have to figure out later. I don't have time right now. "Dora the Explorer" is about to start.

20:45 Posted in Fatherhood | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this