Kill the Rabbit?!

Well, I haven't quite succeeded at the trying-to-write-a-post-a-day resolution, but at least I'm getting better! I've also done really well switching to drinking water only (with the exception of my morning coffee with Splenda and non-fat creamer) and I've managed to avoid eating any sweets at all. The sweetest thing I've had since Grandma's house is an apple! My next step is to get on my bike.

One other thing I've managed to do slightly better at: taking moments to sit down with my children. I tend to get so busy that I let them play or watch TV on their own and I realized recently (about the time where my son was standing in front of me demanding that I play with him as I try to skirt around him while working in the kitchen, or when he climbed up on my lap with a book for me to read even though there was already a computer resting in that spot on my lap) that I haven't just taken time recently to sit down and play with my kids. So that's what I've worked on since returning from our Christmas break up north.

A couple days ago, Brian and I managed to sit down and teach Ann Catherine how to play Monopoly! And, a couple days ago, I even found time to play basketball with Will on his new SpongeBob over-the-door basketball hoop he got from Santa this year. What a way to get a kid riled up just before bedtime! (Actually, it took him an hour to fall asleep so maybe that wasn't my best idea.)

The strangest thing I discovered while sitting down with my kids? Cartoons. I was already familiar with all of their cartoons. However, I made them sit down and watch some OLD Bugs Bunny cartoons that came on a cartoon channel on New Years Day. It was a marathon, so we were able to watch three or four in a row. The kids were amazed - especially when I told them that was my own version of SpongeBob! In the end, though, I was just as amazed. No surprises with the cartoons themselves - I remembered every episode we watched. What amazed me was how violent they were! I always hear people complain about how violent the current cartoons are now. And, to a point, I agree. But after watching all those old Looney Toons cartoons, I was actually more amazed at how violent they USED to be! There was one where Bug Bunny was a concert pianist. However, he kept getting interrupted by some audience person coughing. At one point, he got so frustrated with the coughing that he stopped playing, pulled out a gun and shot the guy dead! (Not that they showed the guy but I'm assuming the gun didn't hit the back of the seat!) After that, we watched another one where some other LT character was chasing Bugs Bunny and singing "Kill the Rabbit." Ann Catherine got upset and actually asked me if they were going to seriously kill the rabbit! We turned it off soon after that, but it did get me to thinking about the difference between modern-day cartoons and my old familiar cartoons I remember watching on Saturday morning. I'm honestly not sure that the violence has increased. If anything, it may have even decreased (at least with the cartoons we normally watch at home!). And, more than that, at least today's cartoons usually have some sort of redeeming quality about it like a good moral to the story! I'm not sure I can honestly think of many cartoons I used to watch where I'd learn to share or be nice to people or clean up the environment or not try to catch jellyfish without some sort of means to protect myself from getting stung. Maybe my kids aren't missing out so much on the good-ole-days!