On Demand Kids

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On Demand TV and Video at our fingertips is both a blessing and a curse for parents.   Before I had children, I was grateful for my TiVo because it allowed me to record the shows I wanted to see but watch them at a time when I was free to do so.  I also liked that fast-forward-through-commercials function very much.    We have been long time TiVo customers and about three years ago, we upgraded our system so that now we have Amazon Prime (sometimes); Netflix; and Comcast (erm.. sorry, ‘Xfinity’) OnDemand available to us via the same box.   We can (almost) see anything we want, at anytime we want.  Yeah.

And then there’s music…   we have become avid Apple users over the last five years, and now, in our house, we have one Mac, 2 iPhones and 2 iPads.  I’m sure that if you dig through our drawers, you will also find at least one old iPhone, if not two, and a couple of iPods.  (OMG! Those are so YESTERDAY!)  We’ve got all of our music everywhere at anytime.  We can also stream through the likes of Spotify and Pandora anytime we want, including getting children’s stations.

My children are growing up in an age where they believe they can watch whatever they want whenever they want, and listen to whatever they want, whenever they want.  “Mama, what’s ‘radio’?”  As a parent who needed to entertain the children while I got myself ready for work in the mornings, there was a time that I was grateful to have Dora the Explorer ready on TiVo at any given point.  But, then, my husband started asking our two year old son “Which episode do you want?”  Which episode??  Just turn it on already!!   Because once that door was opened, then it was a long process to decide which episode, and then heaven forbid the exact episode we wanted had recently been deleted.   Not to mention Dora is the scourge of the earth and should be burned at the stake.  Dora and Boots -- stop yelling already, and just figure out your own problems! With every sticky situation (possibly brought on by ‘sticky tape’?), luckily she has her freaky friends to come save the day at any given point.  I mean really, what would she do without Tico and all his vehicles??

Now that we have two kids, who fortunately have most of the same interests, but not always at the same time, we have times when one refuses to watch the show on TV, and wants to watch her own show on the iPad  simultaneous to her big brother watching a different show on TV.  And, both of the kids have figured out how not only to use the iPad, but know how to navigate Amazon Prime to find the exact show they need.  Fortunately, they have not yet figured out how to purchase a show. 

This morning, I got out of the shower to find them arguing over the fact that they wanted to watch different episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, which is the same show.   The son’s show was recorded on TiVo (“Mickey’s Mystery!”) and the daughter’s show had recently been deleted from TiVo (“Minnie’s Pajama Party”) and all  my daughter wanted to see was ‘Minnie’s Jammie Party!!’.  So, helpful big brother got Daddy’s iPad, found the exact pajama party episode listed on Amazon Prime, but could not start the video.  That’s when I came in.  Sure enough, you had to pay for this one, and I just refuse to do that.   There are thousands of TV shows available – I will not pay for a single episode of MM Clubhouse, not to mention one they have already seen at least three times in the last two days.

This started a firestorm trying to explain to Savvy why she could not see the exact episode she wanted, at the exact time she wanted it.   Cry cry… and of course, I did try other places too, but all I found so far had me paying.  Finally we started Mickey’s Mystery!  and she calmed down.

And, then there are commercials… Now, I am happy that we don’t have to sit through them, but when my children are in the other room screaming at one of us to come in to fast forward through commercials it infuriates me.    Can’t you wait two minutes????  Yet, when the show is over, and they are mindlessly watching the commercials that follow, do they bother to tell me that their show is over (so we can turn the TV off)?  Oh no.  

I’m not as patient as Daddy, and I don’t always ask them the exact episode in an effort just to get them going.  This is becoming harder now that my son can read and catches me…   I also find myself begging to watch other kids shows because I get so sick of the ones we’ve got playing over and over again.  “Can we PLEASE watch Sofia??”  omg… did those words just come out of my mouth??

And finally, as much as possible, when in the car, I try to play the radio.  “Mama, why are we listening to this song??”  “Because it’s on.” Deal.  Life will go on, and you might even find a new song you like besides “Slippery Fish, Slippery Fish sliding through the water….”