MARY POPPINS. NOT JUST A MOVIE -- A LIFESTYLE Ah, to be back. Just read my last posting and my sleepy brain said "wait a minute, that's not how you spell impunity" and now I am hanging my head. Shame, shame, shame. We raised our child to not watch TV but let him start watching a few movies (musicals!!!) when he turned two, so as to gradually assimilate the media "effect" and he has become a Mary Poppins 100% fan. You see, we feel (in our little family) that children should be taught media criticism at a very young age (should be an interesting tutorial). I also feel that TV is nasty stuff. I'll post an email I wrote about it next. At any rate, we looked for nonviolent movies that he could watch. Well DISNEY is certainly out. So then we looked at musicals, because they're "human scale." This thing where you let your two-year old's brain languish in the warty hand of some sped-up, violent cartoon character is just beyond me. Besides, in musicals, people sing and dance. Mom and Dad don't do much of that, so I figured that musicals would be broadening! We tried "Sound of Music" but it's pretty boring. "Oliver" is terrifying, although "Consider Yourself at Home" is a lovely number, with everyone in London singing and dancind along. Ummm, that's about it. I actually purchased "Singin' in the Rain" but it had slapstick, which made him cry. [note: see??? ORDINARY kids who watch movies and tv with impunity are not fazed by violence in the least. I am glad that my kid doesn't find people hitting one another in the head to be a particular laff riot.] At any rate, Poppins it is. He started off being in love with the "spoonful of sugar" sequence. Sure, it was nice when she snapped her fingers and pants folded themselves, but he was absolutely entranced that she put out her finger and -- the BIRD flew to it! And the bird sang to her! How neat. He went around for weeks (he watches this for maybe 8 minutes a week) holding his finger out and saying "Poppins." Mommy would obligingly put her finger out and whistle like the bird. Totally cool. It's been really neat seeing him go through different phases of enjoyment and understanding. I read something once (it was in a book espousing Blues Clues for being a wonderful TV show, better than Sesame Street, actually (more later)) that talked about how toddlers don't understand all that much, which is why they enjoy watching things over and over again -- they get something new out of every rendition. Well, now he's 2.75, and the involvement has become fast and furious. About two weeks ago, he began laughing hysterically and saying "four o'clock!! knock candy over!" We had no idea what he was talking about but, since he only watches one movie (and none of his books are interactive in QUITE this way) I had a suspicion. Sure enough. Finally, after watching the movie (parts of it) for about 7 months, Simon has decided that the man on the roof, exploding his cannon at the exact hour, is absolutely HILARIOUS!!! Ah, how funny. It keeps him going for ages! I made the mistake of buying a Mary Popping tape for the car. Hilarious. Obviously, they hadn't paid to license any of the damn songs so it's a grown up Jane Banks telling the story (in vastly abbreviated form) with two or three lines from the movie interjected now and again. Well unfortunately he LOVES it, and wants to listen to it all the time, so now we have Poppins on the Brain. Last night, he came into the kitchen and insisted on playing the part of the policeman who had found Jane and Michael Banks in the park after they ran away with their kite. He brought me the kite about eight times. They he told me that he was Katie Nana, but when I gently pointed out that she needed to leave (he didn't want her to go) in order to have Mary Poppins come, he acquiesced. Who knows what today will bring?