Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Waiting For Superman II

Getting back to the routine after a long vacation is never easy. The girl forgot how to sleep by herself, the boy forgot how to eat without fussing, and the dogs forgot the basic rule of, "If you bark one more time during nap time, then I don't know what!"

Which means that while I slowly climb laundry mountain, I can make my life easier by putting on some Netflix. The boy wants Wonder Pets, but I put on Superman. Middle Ground.

One of the best things about parenting is the opportunity to relive great moments of my own childhood.

I saw Superman at the theater when I was about six. The whole family, probably like everyone else around us, stayed sitting while the credits rolled. And then this came up.

Waiting for Superman II

Nothing brings back my childhood optimism like this picture. This is not just remembering my childhood. I look at this picture and I'm there, at the movie theater, unable to leave my seat, knowing that nothing that happens in the next year will be as important as going to see Superman II.

My son is not excited. These are different times. Superman is a long movie, and the first half drags on while the action scenes seem rushed. The appeal of Superman is not immediate to this generation of kids. I'm not upset, though. One day, my boy will show his own kids an episode of Wonder Pets. "It's great because Ming Ming is supposed to be good, but she's really an egotistic b--" he'll begin to say. His kids won't care, though. They'll be shocked anyone could enjoy a TV show that wasn't in 3D.
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16 comments:

  1. My son is not excited. These are different times. Superman is a long movie, and the first half drags on while the action scenes seem rushed. The appeal of Superman is not immediate to this generation of kids.

    You might be surprised in even a year's time. My oldest didn't care too much for the things that Mommy and Daddy watched a couple years ago, but now he's really getting into a lot of our favorites. He'll watch the old Spiderman cartoons, Power Puff Girls, Dungeons and Dragons...

    It's really cool when they DO start following your geekery. :)

    From my experience, though, it comes a bit quicker with the younger one. Why? Because they adore their older sibling and want to be JUST LIKE THEM. Teddy (who is 5) is into Pokemon and Pete (who is 2 1/2) has started memorizing Pokemon and their moves. He's also getting into superheroes because Big Brother is. It's not just a gender thing either - my sister has a boy and a girl and my niece is the same way with her big brother as Pete is with Teddy. :)

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  2. my kids are finally old enough to appreciate some of the finer things in life... but we will apparently never get them to laugh during Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

    Kids these days...

    (the egotistic ming ming will have laughing all weekend - and I've never seen a complete episode of Wonder Pets)

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  3. I love the dog's basic rule! The kids I used to babysit in the 80s used to LOVE Dr. Who, so I can't remember whether I actually liked it or not but I ended up watching quite a bit of it (I imagine). So last week I asked my stepdaughter to put on an episode for my boy. I was expecting a nice friendly show appropriate for four year olds and up. No more! It's intense and scary now I guess. I was shocked. I didn't even realize the show had outlived the 80s.

    I don't know why that has anything to do with your blog post and it's not even what I came over here to tell you, even though I was very happy to see a recent post! I wanted to tell you that I was clicking around flickr yesterday just trying to figure something out. I can't quite get a hang of...anything on that site. Well I randomly clicked on your baby photo and my daughter says, "Who's that?" As I'm scrolling up she says, "Oh. People in the Sun." in a "that explains it" kind of tone and doesn't ask for any other explanation. I was sort of amazed. Not only have I been reading your blog since before you had babies and before my gal was a teen, but apparently teens these days think it's normal to know someone by their screen name. That she knew and remembered your blog seemed surprising to me too. If I've showed it to her, the most likely time would have been back a couple years ago around the time of her bat mitzvah.

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  4. Amber, I was actually thinking of trying to watch Pokemon, since it's now on Netflix Instant. I'm still a little traumatized by witnessing the obsession kids had with it when it started, but now that it's calmed down, I might give it a try. And my boy WILL love Superman I and II one day. And he WILL hate Kevin Spacey and Parker Posey for what they did!

    T, I can see how people might not GET Bill & Ted. It's a more sophisticated world, you know. "It's funny because it's funny, OK?" just doesn't work anymore. Unfortunately.

    Jill, you know those people that you've known your whole life, and you think they're completely normal, and then one day someone mentions Star Wars, and they say they've never seen it? I'm like that with Dr. Who. I think I'd like it, actually. But I'm afraid to try. It's always been there, as the show that passed me by, and that will always be there if I call, but if I end up watching it and I don't like it, what then???

    Remember my pre-kids life? I like to romanticize it sometimes and imagine I was very decadent, but really, it just meant more TV.

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  5. I don't have kids yet but I can't wait to share with them the things I loved as a child.

    I just hate when you revisit something you loved as a kid but it doesn't live up to what you remembered. So disappointing!

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  6. Sup BloggerFather,
    My brothers and I were Superman fans as well. I've shown my 5 year old a few past favorites. She dug parts of the original Star Wars and a few others. She wants to know if Superman is more powerful than Jesus, has declared she wants to date Optimus Prime, and thinks Darth Vader is an alright guy. Interesting stuff. Thanks for the post!

    Jason
    The Cheeky Daddy

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  7. Church, I know what you mean. But at least when a movie doesn't live up to my memories, I don't see my kid's rejection of the movie as a personal failure...

    Jason, I sure hope this is not your girl!

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  8. Superman was the hero of our generation! Today's children hero is Hannah Montana :)

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  9. Superman is making a big come back now, with all that is going on in the world. I think that everyone needs a hero, even if fictitious.

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  10. SEO, right? Although the premise is pretty much the same...

    Jeffery, as long as that new movie doesn't suck. I hated the Kevin Spacey one. It was soulless.

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  11. This is a great post it reminds of when I first though I had a good routine for my son until I had family outta town stay for a couple days .. routine right out the window it was weeks before I was able to get him into habit of sitting down for meals quietly and such lol

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  12. Super, we're pretty much back now. He's still not eating much, but she goes to sleep again. It hasn't been easy, though, to get her back to liking her crib. A lot of guilt on our side for letting her cry-it-out for more than two minutes.

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  13. I know its rough, I cant stand to hear my son cry but we have to be parents first and friends second Ive had to learn that lesson the hard way (got a spoiled one) well I guess he not too spoiled lol

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  14. Children love to watch the action stuff. When I was young I loved tom and jerry cartoons. In fact, I still do,

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  15. It's so true, you can't expect kids today to enjoy the same heros as we did, but still I can't help but feel that our cartoon characters and action figures were just so much better!

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  16. Better consider this one. Thanks! Indeed, Superman really boomed in our time twenty years back. Good thing most kids right now still enjoying to watch superman on TV that we used to do before. Superman special features and amazing powers are not only the reasons that made him admirable by many but on how he portrays himselp as a hero to save and protect the humankind.

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