Friday, May 28, 2010

The 6 o'clock News

I could go for days, maybe even weeks without watching the news, except I really like to watch the weather reports. So while I am waiting for the weather to come on, we usually end up watching the news highlights that come on before the weatherman. This always ends up in some kind of discussion between the kids. The older kids complain how stupid the news is, how someone did something dumb and ended up on the news. I try to use these stories as a teaching moment. "See! no matter how mad you are, you just can't do (whatever it was). You will end up in jail." "See! they didn't use their brains! Now he/she is in trouble." Sometimes the kids actually argue with the tv and tell the reporters how dull that last story was or how they should dress better. FL on the otherhand, gets quite upset. One time she heard that the local amusement park was closing, and no matter what we told her, she just didn't believe us that the park was just closing for the winter, and not permanently. Last summer there was an arsonist setting barns on fire in our area. FL would ask every night if there had been any more fires and would list all the barns she could think of that she didn't want to burn down. There are a lot of barns in our area and she has a really good memory, so this list could go on for hours it seemed. Tonight she was upset when she heard that the Atlantis space shuttle was on it's last voyage. "Awwhhh! I really wanted to go into space! Well, I guess that won't ever happen now!"

FL also commented on all the recent advertisements for the upcoming election. She wanted to know what all the "pot-additions*" were talking about. Hmmmm.



p.s. *politicians