We Finally Surrendered… Or, At Least, I Did

Yesterday morning, I woke up with a backache. And it was raining hard. And I was on call.

There was a flurry of pages in the late morning, all “real” calls, with sick patients. I was talking on the phone and working on the computer for a few hours. The kids were getting progressively more stir-crazy. If one wasn’t poking/ tackling/ beating the other, the other was. Hubby was trying to do research, and keep order. I kept apologizing to patients on the phone: Sorry about the racket in the background! Apologies for the ruckus over here! The usual cheap distractions weren’t working: Curious George, Caillou, cooking shows.

Out of desperation, I grabbed the controls and announced, “We need something mesmerizing. Now. ”

Hubby froze. “You’re putting Frozen on, aren’t you?”

We’ve been making a concerted effort to avoid Frozen. And despite the facts that the songs are on everywhere, their friends have the little figurines, and that 75% of little girls were in blue princess gowns for Halloween, we’ve managed to NOT watch that movie.

Our kids are pretty little, and basically watch what we put on for them. Since we avoid most movies in general, it’s not too hard.

At a ladies’ brunch recently, somehow it came up that neither I nor my kids had seen this movie.

“But how?” asked one shocked mom. “It’s so… mesmerizing!”

That statement resonated with me. And yesterday morning was the perfect setting for… mesmerizing.

As soon as the Disney intro came on, the kids were transfixed. But, as soon as girl characters came on, Babyboy was outta there. “I don’t LIKE this show,” he announced, and fled to do arts and crafts in the other room.

Babygirl, on the other hand, was quite taken with the show, at least for a half an hour or so.

At least they had stopped poking/ tackling/ beating each other.

The funny thing was, as Hubby pointed out, the one person in the house most mesmerized by Frozen was…. me.

I only got to see the very beginning, the medley where, of course, the parents are eliminated. I even got a little teary-eyed. So touching! So beautiful! But… what happens?

The rest of the cold, rainy, shut-in day, I kept trying to interest Babygirl in watching the rest of the movie. “Hey, want to see what happens to the two princesses?” or, “I bet the rest of the  Princess movie is really good! Want to watch?”

Finally I got her to say “Okay,” and I got to watch the rest of the movie. It IS a really good movie. Catchy songs. Well-done. I was glad to have seen it.

Then, this morning, we awoke to even MORE rain, and even snow. The dreaded Wintry Mix. And, Babyboy has a fever, he’s back in bed, hugging a bucket. And Hubby left for the game. And I’m on call…..

“Hey Honey, want to see that princess movie again?”