It Has To Be A Monkey Thing

One of my biggest pet peeves, is parents who don't discipline their children in public. I'm sure you've seen it all: the child who's running around the store and the mother is nowhere to be found; children acting out in the restaurant when you're trying to have a quiet relaxing dinner; or the child who tries to be the bully on the playground and the mother doesn't speak a word.

While I'm home with the Madore-ables, I try to limit their intake of television. They have so many toys, and there's so many activities to do outside, there's just no time for the tube. Although, once in awhile we'll sit down and relax and watch some PBS. One of the Madore-ables favorite shows is Curious George. We bought Samantha a DVD with 7 or 8 CG shows on one movie. Whenever Sarah hears the theme song, if she's playing with something else in the other room, she'll come running in. It's really cute. But, it seems that the more I watch this brown, curious, 4-legged Mammal, the more I'm horrified by his outrageous behavior. I know, I know, he's curious, he's supposed to get into trouble you say, but the fact that the Man In the Yellow Hat doesn't do anything to curb his little monkey's behavior is just plain wrong! Watching the show causes me to think of some things:

1. Leaving your monkey alone and saying "Now be a good little monkey" before you leave is not a good way of disciplining. Come on Man, let's kick up the monkey discipline a little!


2. Another thing, why hasn't DSS been called in? Clearly, George can't take care of himself, and the Man In the Yellow Hat can't be responsible for taking care of George.


3. Something else I have pondered is, what would you call George's master? Last name: Hat. First name, Comma Man In The Yellow? Man? Yellow hat man? I digress.

Every night, bedtime ritual is bottles of milk and some story time. One of the books that's on the agenda is Steve Haskamp's illustrated story of "Eight Silly Monkeys". I'm sure you've heard the story:

Eight silly monkeys jumping on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head. Mama called the doctor and the doctor said, "No more monkeys jumping off the bed!"

The story proceeds with the other seven monkeys all creating some kind of shenanigan, falling off the bed, and Mama calling the doctor. Now my girls are sitting there happily drinking their milk, and relaxing with a cute, funny story. However, I'm sitting there again, questioning several things:

1. After the first monkey falling off the bed and bumping his head, why didn't the mother monkey just tell the other 7 to not jump otherwise they'll hurt themselves like their brother/sister?


2. Why is the mother so calm? All she does is call the doctor. If I had 8 monkeys running around my house, I would not be so calm.


3. Why would you need a pediatrician to tell you that monkeys shouldn't jump on the bed?


4. I don't know about you, but if I were the pediatrician, and I received 8 phone calls from the same mother saying that my children were jumping on the bed, by the 3rd phone call, I would have again called the authorities and reported that monkey mommy for neglect.
   

So moral of the story is: if you want to get away with things, you need to be a monkey!