Thursday, June 10, 2010

Sports!

The first matches of the World Cup are tomorrow!  Hooray!  This does, however, present me with a couple problems.  First, I will have conflicting tv schedules.

Most mornings, Elliott takes a nap while Lydia watches Dinosaur Train.  Throughout her life, Lydia has tried on a number of different tv shows.  Dora sucks because everybody shouts, and the only Spanish you learn is journey-related.  Kai-lan sucks because it is Dora, except you learn Mandarin instead of Spanish.  Elmo sucks because it's Elmo.  Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse is terrible, although it is tolerable only because Mickey always talks about his mouse-ke-tools and I always think, "You're a mouse-ke-tool."  Then I chuckle to myself.  But even this doesn't make it watchable.  Dinosaur train, though.  Come on.  You learn about dinosaurs, eras in earth's history, kindness, trains.  Come on.  Dr. Scott the paleontologist seems really friendly (I'd hang out with him.  Whenever the other guy tells the kids sobering facts like, "Fact: Dinosaurs did not play ice hockey," or "Fact: Dinosaurs did not put on acrobatic shows," Dr. Scott seems as disappointed as the kids and adds some other fun fact that cheers the kids up.  Plus he's a snappy dresser).  

Anyway, most World Cup matches will be in the morning, which means they will be on during Dinosaur Train.  On one hand, I want to be a nice dad and let Luda watch her show.  On the other hand, it's the freakin World Cup.  It comes only once a fourth-year (that's not a real expression).  Ultimately, I will watch the matches.  It will be a great opportunity to teach Lydia that sometimes we have to set aside what we like for other things that are much greater, even if we don't understand them or appreciate them.  Plus, Luda's good at asking questions about sports.  She loves watching basketball with me (although she cheers for the Lakers...boooo!  I think it mostly has to do with their jersey colors (and no, I do not believe this has to do with her gender (more on this in a future post).  At three years old, what other basis would she have for selecting a team?  Although it would be impressive, I do not expect her to say, "I'm going for the Suns because Steve Nash is a stellar role model in a league of selfish players, and the team has fantastic chemistry."))  So this will be great chance to teach her about soccer.  Hooray.

Other dilemma (you forgot about that, didn't you?)?  Some experts suggest that children Lydia's age shouldn't watch more than two hours of tv in a day.  With halftime, that's only one match.  Once a fourth-year and I'm supposed to prioritize one match per day?  That's not happening.  Good news, though.  A greater expert, espn.com page 2 writer Cam Martin said that sports don't count as tv-watching for kids.  I trust that (that's the good news about the internet age.  You can always find someone who will say what you want to hear...or maybe that's bad news.  I'm not sure).  

So we'll go with that.  Whatever I need to justify watching a crap-ton of soccer over the next month, right?

1 comment:

  1. I agree about Dinosaur Train, but diverge in your allegiance to Dr. Scott. I'm not saying I want to disparage him, but I don't want to hang out with him much. So if I am coming to hang out with you, will you please let me know ahead of time if Dr. Scott will be there?

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