Adventure into Domesticland: I Wish I Was Like The Cartoon Parents

Thursday, November 22, 2012

I Wish I Was Like The Cartoon Parents

Thursday - 11.22.12

After a week of being sick and having a sick toddler, it's needless to say I've watched a lot of cartoons, so I'm sorry if my posts this week are all about them. However, during this week I've begun to understand what's wrong with our society. See the parents in cartoons are home 24 hours a day interacting with their children in silly, childish ways, giving into their imaginations. I think it's great and I wish I could do it more with my kids. But it's completely unrealistic.

Sadly the true reality is that parents time is stretched very thin and even if you are a stay at home mom like me, you just don't have time to be super silly with your kids all day long. Don't get me wrong I have small moments of silliness with them but not as much as I like. The parents in cartoons will stop whatever they are doing to entertain there children's imaginations. Part of me says I wish I could do this more and the other part of me says its unrealistic, even harmful to a child later on in life. Do these shows set us up for failure as parents?

My son who's now 10 says we don't spend enough time with him, when we feel like all we do is spend time with our kids. He thinks my husband should be outside skateboarding with him every afternoon and that I should be playing video games with him every weekend. Although we do those things as often as we can, and let's face it we could probably do it more, is it realist to give into our children every time they are in a silly state of mind? My hubby and I were reflecting on our own childhoods and although our families did many things together and our parents made every attempt to spend one on one time with us, we didn't get half as much attention as our children get from us.

Somewhere along the road to adulthood we loose our imagination, our sense of being silly. The struggles that life throws at you as soon as you get a job, a house, a spouse and kids seems to sap up all the silliness you once possessed and in it's place it leaves bitterness and resentment. Unfortunately our kids seem to catch the brunt of most of that build up. When they want to act silly, we are tired, worn out and take it as an irritation.

On the other side of this, kids grow up watching these cartoons wishing their parents were more like the parents in cartoons. And so the resentment starts and they grow up thinking life should be rainbows and gumdrops, only to learn the hard way that life can be cruel and realize all to late their parents did the best they could.

I want to find the balance of teaching my children hard life lessons while still being a fun, silly mom. Funny how cartoons are helping me to learn what that takes. Note to self: when something is funny to my kids fall on the ground laughing hysterically like they do on Peppa Pig... It's a start!