An Open Letter to Nine News Perth

Dear Nine News Perth,

Today was an absolute STINKER of a day. But you know that, right?

It got up to mind melting 44.4 degrees. But you know that, too, right?

I know you know because in the ad breaks of this afternoons movie you kept telling me. Funnily enough, I actually worked out that it was hot all by myself. Being covered in sweat despite sitting under a fan was a useful clue.

My issue, and the catalyst behind this open letter, is not to just faff on about the weather or even the triumphant return of Liam Bartlett whose sultry tones can talk to me about anything and I'd still enjoy it, but rather to complain. Because what good is an open letter if you don't whinge, amiright?

You see, my kids were watching the 1pm movie. Well sorta. The big one was, the little one was running in and out of the lounge, asking for food and, at one point, trying to sit on the dog. But I digress.

It was too hot to let the kids go outside past 7:30am (I know this because that's the time we left the park) so I let my four year old watch a movie on the couch after lunch.

We flicked through the channels to see what was on, and the straight to DVD classic, Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove, caught the preschooler's eye.

Brilliant! He can enjoy the mish mash of CGI and green screen with the "acting" of Bindi Irwin and I can feel smug in the fact that I can almost chalk this up as educational TV time. Orcas and conservation FTW!

Then your ad came on.

Immediately, horrid images filled the screen. Houses on fire and smashed cars. We heard that many houses had been destroyed; the car crash was fatal.

I get you want to advertise, and that's just dandy, but because you placed these awful images in the ad breaks of a CHILDREN'S MOVIE during the SCHOOL HOLIDAYS I'm now having to explain to my petrified four year old that (fingers crossed) our house isn't about to burn down and we won't die in a pile of twisted metal on the way to pick up his Dad in the afternoon.

Did you know a lot of preschoolers can be a bit obsessed with death? So it's not that I've got some morbid little freak here that is on his way to becoming a psychopath, it's a stage of development and they want to know what happens. Usually I can field his questions with age appropriate responses, but it makes it hard when you're showing everything but a dead body.

I figured that maybe it had been put on in error, but the ad kept coming on. Three times that I'm aware of - after that I managed to get there in time to flick channels during the ad breaks in an attempt to not further traumatize the kid who insisted on finding out whether Willy was freed. I kept watching to be chief channel flicker and to find out if Willy ate Beau Bridges. One of us was right, but I don't want to spoil it for you, so I won't say any more.

I don't let my kids watch the news because they don't need to see or hear about the horror in the world. They know bad things happen, but right now the most horrific thing in my four year old's life is not getting a new dinky car at the shops. He's little and I want him to retain that wide eyed innocence for a while longer before full time school, or rather recess and lunch, helps whisk it away. So pretty please, Nine News, if you're going to put on ads during a movie aimed at children, please consider that children might actually be watching.

Yours sincerely,

Glow

I’m stuffed so I watched Doc McStuffins

This post is sponsored by Nuffnang

Little did I know when I accepted this sponsored post that I almost wouldn’t get it in on time because Tricky would end up being rushed to hospital in an ambulance with a severe asthma attack, right when I was meant to be writing it. Children and schedules no not mix, obviously.

We’ve come home from our third hospital admission in three weeks with instructions to freak out a bit at how quickly asthma can go from bad to life threatening visit the GP for follow up, and though Tricky has seen a couple before for different reasons, it looks like we’ll be seeing a lot more as we try to manage this new chapter.

Enter Doc McStuffins, the six year old who brings her toys to life then heals their boo boos. Other than the word boo boos which I loathe, it’s a cute show and Tricky and I spent some time watching it in an effort to normalize trips to the doctor. Plus it meant I could avoid housework since I was so stuffed from staying on a fold out bed in the hospital listening to sick babies cry all night. Win win.

Doc and her magic stethoscope (ZOMG how cute is that Lamb?)

I’m a firm believer that kids shows have to appeal to adults. We’re the ones who have to put up with them, really, so there has to be something in it for me to make me tolerate Tricky watching it over and over and over (and over and over) again before I’ve had enough and declare the DVD “broken” and hide it at the back of the cupboard.

In Doc McStuffins, that honour belongs to Lambie (with Chilly the snowman coming a very close second). I’m such a sucker for cute so in the episode I watched when Lambie, who is unsurprisingly a little lamb, said “That was the most exciting cuddle I ever had!” I was smitten.

Exciting cuddles are my favourite thing too and I’m so good at giving them. Get your mind out of the gutter!

Lambie made me giggle and go nawwww at the same time, which sounded like I was having some sort of fit and has now been added to my list of things never to do in public alongside burp the alphabet. But I digress.

Now that’s one exciting cuddle!

Tricky enjoyed it (oh yeah, that’s right, I was meant to show the kids show to the kid) and it held his attention for the whole time, even though he was exhausted. I’m wondering if when the Doctor doesn’t heal him with a hug, a kiss and a strategically placed bandaid, and instead forces him to have ventolin and steroids, if he might feel a little jipped.

Group hug with Doc McStuffins and her giant head

Laying down to watch, the day home from hospital

Now, if only I could get Tricky’s doctor to accept hugs as payment like Doc does… they’d be exciting cuddles, of course. GET YOUR MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER!

Doc McStuffins premieres on Friday, June 8, at 9.15am (screening times, Mon-Sun 9.15am and 3.15pm; Mon-Fri 12.15pm and 6.15pm; Sat-Sun 11.15am and 5.45pm) on Disney Junior which we don’t have. I guess I’ll just have to keep replaying the one episode over and over and over again… oh so that’s where Tricky gets it from!?

Idiot Box

We're not big TV watchers at Casa de Glow. Well, we weren't. Now we are because Map Guy bought a 42 inch LCD screen with his tax return, so it is literally a big TV, and we're going through that honeymoon phase that you get with all new appliances and are glued to the idiot box most nights watching ABC or SBS (because we're smarmy and like to think we're smart by shunning commercial stations).

Even old TV shows and DVDs we've watched 100 times before are getting another go just to check out the sound and picture quality. It has Map Guy foaming at the mouth.

The magic of the moving pictures has not been lost on Tricky either. He's allowed to watch a bit of TV in the morning (or a lot if it's one of those days). He casts his eyes upwards and sees Iggle Piggle or Big Bird or Peppa Pig towering over him. His eyes boggle and you can see his brain switch off.

But there is one show that sucks him in like no other; it makes him giggle and clap his hands whilst dancing... and I'm ashamed to admit, it has me sucked in too. The animation, the voices, the feel good stories, you name it, I love it. The theme song gets stuck in my head for days at a time and I go around the house singing it, sounding like a moron (but hey, at least it keeps Tricky still at change times).

So to spread the ear-wormy goodness of Tricky's favourite song, we recorded this (quite blurry video) really really early yesterday morning while Map Guy was having his Father's Day sleep in. Enjoy!






Do you have a favourite kid's show? Do you know all the words to the theme song?