Pause it

October 12, 2010

I vividly remember rushing to the kitchen for a drink or a snack during the commercials of my favorite cartoons when I was little.

There was a sense of urgency to watching TV because if — heaven forbid — you missed a few minutes of your show because you took too long on a phone call or a bathroom break, those few minutes of programming were lost forever.

If there was a show we couldn’t be home to watch, we might set our VCR to record the show on a video cassette tape. (Remember those bulky plastic things?) Success depended on figuring out how to set the VCR clock and the recording correctly. A power outtage at the house for one reason or another meant — sorry, Charlie — you didn’t get to see how THAT episode ended.

Things sure have changed! My 4-year-old daughter is growing up in The Age of DVR.

When I was a kid on Saturday morning, if mom peeked into my bedroom and told me I was about to miss G. I. Joe or He-Man or Thundercats or Transformers or Bugs Bunny or any of the other shows I enjoyed, I would SPRING out of bed and SPRINT to the living room.

The other day, my wife went into my daughter’s bedroom to wake her up. It was a school morning, and now that my daughter knows how to dress herself, we usually let her watch Word World or Dora or Backyardigans or Wonder Pets or one of her other shows while she is getting dressed.

My wife said Good Morning and asked her, “Are you ready to get up?”

My daughter mumbled something and pulled the covers up over her head.

Noting our little girl’s hesitation, my wife added, “You’re going to miss your cartoons if you don’t get up.”

Our daughter’s reply from under the covers?

“Just pause it, mommy.”