Learning from Calvin, the Phone, TV and...


Appreciating Bill Watterson: My 7 yo has begun to appreciate the art in Calvin and Hobbes. Especially Calvin’s expressions, from that wicked look to pure bliss to grumpiness and anger:

Making faces: The other day, when I stuck my tongue out at her (it feels so good to do that), she challenged me to a “Who can make the uglier face?” contest. It was a massacre: is it a kid thing or did she learn from Calvin?

Upside of phone games: The (phone) game of the month in her circle is Granny, involving a haunted house and the proverbial witch. As I told her yet again to not spend so much time on that game, she turned around and told me, “Playing this game will help me overcome my fear of ghosts and the dark”. Nice try!

I need a volunteer: It’s not just the phone. Kids can weaponize stuff learnt from the TV too. Seeing the Heimlich Maneuver, a technique to save someone who is choking, she was instantly attracted to the (necessary) violence of the move. Needing a victim to practice it on, she decided to create the opportunity. Turning to me, she said, “Go stuff your mouth with something so you start choking”.

Relative pricing: The other day, when she wanted to buy a sanitizer, I refused saying it was too expensive at 100 bucks. She responded with a “You cheapskate” look. Later in the day, she saw this Burger King ad offering a meal for “just” 79 bucks. I was pleasantly surprised to hear her say, “If a whole burger meal costs 79 bucks, then a sanitizer should definitely cost less than that.”

New oracle in town: The name of the entity who we think has all the answers changes over time. Oracles, the sphinx, encyclopedias… I thought we’d reached the end of that road with Google. So when my daughter wanted to know the time on the West Coast of the US to decide when she could call her mom, I turned to Google. Upon which my daughter told me to ask Alexa instead. I guess Alexa is the new Google for the next generation.


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