Thomas the Tank engine vs Mister Men

This afternoon I took Joseph through a rite of passage which comes to all young men. One that will stamp an important mark on his psyche, standing him in good stead for his future role in society and relationships.

Yep, I taught him how to use the remote control for the DVD player!

Children's DVD's give you the option of watching all of the stories on them or picking and choosing which one you want to watch. Joseph likes to choose each Thomas the Tank engine or Mr Men story one by one. This is fine as we usually sit together to watch but there are times when I get called in from the kitchen because "Mr Uppity has finished, I want My Skinny now". So, I sat down and talked him through the commands and he got it; first time around!

"So what", I hear you cry. Well, if you'd seen his face when he realised he could control what appeared on the screen, you'd understand!

Television is scary though. M calls television "evil" - not in a New Age, White Witch kind of way you understand; it's just that you can be talking to someone who has one eye and ear on the screen whilst pretending to listen to what you're saying!

This was the case on Saturday morning. As everyone knows, it's the Law of England that anyone under the age of 10 years old is fully entitled to watch television on a Saturday morning until their eyes dry up and fall out. I remember watching Saturday morning tv into my teens. Ok then, 20's. Late 20's; whatever, the point is I was standing beside the sofa, asking J what he wanted for his breakfast. He was in a trance watching Robot Boy or something. It took me 3 attempts to get a response out of him!!

Like James Brown said; "This is a man's world. But he'd be nothin', without his remote control by his side".

Or words to that effect.