A time for every purpose

I have a confession: My kids watch TV right before they go to bed. Despite all the admonishments, for adults and kids alike, to 86 screen time right before hitting the sheets, I let my kids wrap up their day with Dora and Diego. According to all "the experts", who I am convinced don't have young children of their own, I should be reading them bedtime stories or encouraging quiet imaginative play at that point in the day.

Whatever. By the time 8:00 p.m. rolls around, I'm so utterly exhausted that I'm just as excited to see those smiling animated Hispanic explorers as the kids are. I assuage my guilt by reminding myself it could be worse. At least they don't have a TV in their bedroom.

A few nights ago, however, the kids rebelled against the typical evening offerings on Nick Jr., for which we pay an upgrade charge just to have, so up the channel menu I went to find a suitable alternative. As it turned out, the Looney Tunes were on a cartoon channel that comes with that overpriced, I mean, upgraded TV package.

Turning to my husband, I asked if he thought the Looney Tunes were age-appropriate for our 5- and 3-year old. I'm not sure if it was the phrase "age-appropriate", which to them is synonymous with "must be more awesome than we can imagine", or if it was the palpable hesitation in my voice, but the kids pounced.

"Yes! Yes! Looney Tunes!"

So I conceded. I was exhausted, remember? And then I headed to the other room to luxuriate in the ensuing 30 minutes of peace.

Most nights, the kids pop in and out of the living room, keeping one eye on the show and the other on my every move. I run downstairs to the basement to grab clean pajamas that go from dryer to body with nary a stop in a dresser drawer in our house, and I literally trip over at least one child on my ascent back upstairs. But that night, they were riveted. And giggling hilariously. So was my husband.

For a full 30 minutes, they were enthralled by the wacky antics of Wily, Elmer and Daffy, the same goofball characters that had entertained me on many a Saturday morning. Though they've been given 21st century makeovers, the cast is still the same, and so are the jokes which, I decided that night, aren't so much "age-appropriate" as "ageless."

So what if Bugs Bunny wasn't teaching my kids to speak Spanish or Chinese? He was making them laugh, and sometimes that's all you need.

In the end, the kids did get a quick lesson on the finer points of discerning between cartoon behavior and human behavior after my son demonstrated Daffy Duck's back slap on my left cheek. A teachable moment, or my cosmic come-uppance for rotting my kids'  brains with cartoons? I'll let you be the judge.