Sunday after Thanksgiving weekend, full of rich food and lots of social interaction. The kids are sitting on the couch transfixed by Squidward and Spongebob. Why am I letting my small children be corrupted by Spongebob? It’s a very weird show and clearly inappropriate for children my kids’ ages. But somehow I’ve been seduced by the utter oddness of Spongebob and I’m letting my kids watch it. Earlier today, we had some friends over, new friends, one of those kind of nerve wracking get togethers (will the kids get along? will they still like us after we demonstrate our obvious social ineptitude?) and they confessed to rationalizing a whole host of things to appease their (equally small) children. I laughed because it struck so close to home. Before becoming a parent, I knew my children wouldn’t watch any TV, let alone Spongebob. While they’ve watched almost no TV with commercials, that’s probably the only redeeming thing I can say about the choices we’ve made about TV.
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This has been a nice Thanksgiving weekend. It’s the first one I can remember feeling relaxed about. I’m very thankful for the way this year has gone. I’ve managed to get my professional life into some order and my personal life has magically fallen into place–both of these after a great deal of hard work on everyone’s part. I think if anyone had told me that I’d be in the position I am in now–in charge of critical decisions in people’s lives–I wouldn’t have believed it. But now that I sit here, I feel like I’m exactly where I ought to be.
