One of the “highlights” of the Baby Expo I attended last year was the appearance of a certain purple reptile who, despite being the most annoying thing on the planet, continues to avoid extinction. Children screamed in delight and parents groaned in agony every time He Who Shall Not Be Named took the stage and danced to his theme music. There was no escape. It was traumatic, and cemented my decision to ban the creature from our house.
I promptly let all friends, family and acquaintances know that should any toy, book or DVD related to the monster be given to my baby, it would continue its journey to the nearest charity shop. (I’m all for recycling, you see.) The reaction from most people was something like, “Oh, we’d never do that to you!”
I’ve been happily telling people that I grew up just fine without the purple beast, so my child will do equally well on a diet of Smurfs and Gummi Bears.
Imagine my horror when I visited a friend recently and she put on a DVD to entertain the kids while we chatted. Not just any DVD – no, it was one featuring the very creature I’d been determined to shield my daughter from. Angelique was transfixed. I was appalled.
Then I thought, she’s only seven months old. She’s probably not going to remember this. And if it happens again, well, I’ll just have to come to terms with the fact that I can’t protect my daughter from all the evils of the world. But accepting this doesn’t mean that devil dinosaur is welcome in our house.
I quite agree. Well done you for doing your best to protect your daughter from these evils. It’s only use as far as I can see would be to use as a torturous interrogation technique on suspected terrorists but that might be a little too inhumane.