Going to the Movies. Part One.

Tonight, I am taking Aidan to his very first movie. It's actually an important milestone for me, but I am okay with that. I took Owen to see Monsters Inc, when he was just shy of 4. I remember that tears whelled in my eyes, as I watched him staring at the big screen in rapt fascination. No, I was not weeping over his induction to the dominant paradigm, although that may well have been occuring. I think all those precious memories of me and my dad going to see Star Wars, and when I was older the Indiana Jones saga came rushing back. I was consciously fulfilling one of those important rituals that our families tend to engage in. We took Harry to see Lilo and Stitch, but the only reason was because I was pregnant and it was 40 degrees and a humidex warning. It seemed the only place I could hang out for a longish period of time with air-conditioning (which also allowed me to eat and sit on my duff). Harry did more running than sitting. Eric and I spent shifts chasing Harry around. There was no rapt fascination and there were no tears.

How odd it is to think you are spending quality time with your child by plunking them in front of an even bigger tv. Its so Chomskian. I feel that I am purposefully ignoring the real issues. Chomsky's critique of the popular media alleges that it distracts us from what is really happening. I'm tuning out. Well Hell Noam...YES! With all the angst I carry with the crap in my department (yes more work related ire), I deserve a bit of tuning out time. I spend inordinate amounts of time trying to convince people to tune-in...that I am conciously and intentionally going to spend seven dollars and fifty cents to spend time with my three year old, and tune OUT gosh darn it! I'm taking him to the rep theatre on base to see Wallace and Grommit: Curse of the WereRabbit. I rented a DVD of W&G shorts last week and Aidan watched with rapt fasination.

When I asked him what I was doing, he intonated in his very best Aidanian, "Why mother I am consciously and intentionally repressing the critical issues which face humanity."
"I thought so", I replied. For a three year old, Aidan is pretty hip.

Well, you all know very much that this hyperbole on my part. He does not use the work "repressed" all that often. Aidan has been coming to spend quality time with me every 4 am for the past month. He's very sweet about it, and it is hard to resist the snuggle time, despite the hour. So, when I hit play on the DVD last week, and he thoroughly enjoyed Wallace and Grommit, I thought that it was high time that Aidan and I had some real mommy-son time. After all, he's pretty complicated. He does not yet shadow me well in Malls and is very difficult to keep contained in a shopping cart. Oh, yeah, then there was that matter of him running away which got Social Services on my tail. I make lots of time to spend alone with just Harry or Owen. Its Aidan's turn. He just doesnt know it yet.

Good planning on my part: Aidan is exausted, and has not had a nap. The 7 o'clcck showing might be perfectly timed. Or, if you of a strange story come out of Reuters about a small child disappearing from movie theatre in Eastern Canada, that will be Aidan. If you do, know that there are no seatbelts in movie theatre seats. And I would have really tried.