Disclosure: As a member of Netflix’s Stream Team, I get to watch an incredible amount of TV and tell you about it. (My kids are understandably tolerant.) Although I’m compensated, all thoughts, opinions, and second cups of coffee are entirely my own.*
*So back off.
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I’m pretty lucky. I happened to marry a guy who shares my love of nostalgia- and puttering- on weekend mornings. Case in point: Saturdays are when P.J. makes the kids his world/household-famous chocolate chip pancakes, and while they “help,” they get to stream 1980s-tacular cartoons like The Real Ghostbusters. I cannot tell you how happy that makes us, both as parents and as Ray Parker Jr. fans.
We’ve tried telling them about The Old Days, where you had to watch what was on the TV or you didn’t, you know, watch anything. And boy, if you missed that half hour window of Kid Show time? Hope you like golf, pal. (That’s a joke. No one should enjoy watching golf.)
We also attempted to explain dialup, early AOL chat rooms, and local bulletin boards where we all kinda had user names one letter off from our real names- that, or a character from The X-Files– but lost our kids’ focus real, real quick. (“…So, it didn’t hook up to your FitBit?”)
But back to our weekend plans and How Good Kids These Days Have It.
Sunday mornings bring cereal and more Important Viewings. (One of our greatest victories as parents has been convincing our kids that Honey Nut Cheerios count as a sugary treat. Well, that, and letting them know that the American Girl Place flagship store is actually, sadly, a doll museum. We don’t make the rules!)
Anyhow. Alongside Sugar Cereal Sunday comes Animaniacs…and a blessedly quiet half an hour wherein P.J. and I read the actual paper on the actual couch.
Sometimes we wander in to watch Danger Mouse. Sometimes we have a second cup of coffee and hold hands. Either way, I’d be hard-pressed to find a better start to the weekend.
So yes, I suppose you could say that we’ve reinvented Saturday- and Sunday- morning cartoons, kept the magic of “old fashioned” kid programming alive and well, and still had a say in what, where, and for how long our kids streamed the media we chose.
Eat your heart out, Hoverboards.
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Okay, are these not the cutest things you’ve ever seen?
Love,
The gal who put Bill Nye in three of the spaces.
Tell me what you’re streaming, friends!
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