The Chef and The Crab

This afternoon my husband talked the children into watching The Little Mermaid.  In some households, you wouldn't find that to be a problem—getting the children to agree to watch a movie.   Here, we have a two-fold problem.  

My son is the first obstacle: he doesn't want to watch a movie unless he's seen it already.   And sometimes, he doesn't want to watch the movie even if he has seen it.   Maybe he's a little like me in that he doesn't want to commit to a long period in front of the television.   It's hard sometimes to even get him to the theater to see a movie he wants to see.

What we have to do typically is put the movie on and as long as he's in the room for thirty seconds, he's hooked.   The one exception to this rule is movies in a series, like Harry Potter or Star Wars.   In those cases, he wants to watch them all in a row, preferably in one sitting if we'd let him stay up until morning in the case of Star Wars.

My daughter doesn't want to watch movies because she can't see them.   Movies don't describe things in the same way that a book does.  There is descriptive audio on many movies and we try to suggest and try to find movies that provide it.  

Saturday's sunny late afternoon rays must have shone on my husband and given him powers of movie persuasion though because both children came to the living room to watch.   They watched until dinner was ready and then finished the movie afterward.

And then, because there is a second movie, they started that one with my son's hearty enthusiasm.  After a bit, we all headed outside to jump on the trampoline before darkness set in.   I came in after talking to the neighbor about unexpected emergency surgery their dog had to have after inhaling a four-inch bone (she is a Daschaund).   My son came in shortly thereafter and started the movie again while his sister and father continued to jump.

I was working on the computer when I heard uproarious laughter coming from my son in the living room.   He ran in and told me excitedly, "it's the entire point of the movies, the chef and the crab!"   If you haven't seen the movies, the crab, Sebastian, has altercations with the palace chef throughout the movie.   The chef trying to make dinner out the crab is my son's favorite part of the movie, he told me.

We've been trying to get them to see The Little Mermaid for a long time.   I wonder if their play for the rest of the weekend will be mermaid-related?

The Big Boy Update:   My son just ran in the room here, where I'm typing this on my bed.   He grabbed some pajamas and told me more about the chef and the crab going as far as saying, "I mean it should be a meme.   That's how important it is."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter might not have liked the movies as much as she did today were it not for the office chair she's recently made her newest obsession.   She spins in it all the time.   It's annoying to all the adults, including her teachers she meets with online.   I went through a spinning on chairs and piano stools during piano lessons phase myself, so I can understand in a long ago and far away way.   She brought the chair downstairs tonight and rolled around inbetween bouts of spinning while listening to the movies.