Trapped In The Kiddie Pool

The Internet summit in Washington is being discussed currently on Talk of the Nation. It's phone-in only, so I'm blessed with the opinions of random, possibly informed strangers from all over the nation. The repeated mantra is "safe for kids." It must be safe for kids! Everything must be kid-safe! For God's sake, people, our kids are on the Net!

Now, again, I don't have kids; maybe I'll change when I have some. I have a friend who no longer watches The Simpsons because her 3-year-old might imitate Bart Simpson.

But this seems to be the same problem as putting the V-chip on the TV. There's too much information out there! We have to put some external controls on it! We parents just can't handle it!

Well...How about an off switch? How about not having cable? How about not having a TV? How about only letting the kids use the computer when you're in the room, or putting the computer in an open, public area, rather than in a private one?

Oh, that might cramp your style, eh?

Incredibly broad generalization approaching: a lot of these terrified parents want someone--preferably a big, faceless corporation, but the government will do as well--to handle this problem for them, instead of biting the bullet and learning how to do it themselves.

I'd be a lot less cynical if we cared about kids at any other time. Like in schools, or with day care, or time off for parents. No, we only care about kids when it serves a political purpose, usually right-wing.

Who the heck is in charge of these families, anyhow? Have parents lost the ability to say "no" and tell their children what to do? Did I miss the boat and get a pair of parents who actually disciplined me? Of course, they didn't usually have to discipline me much, because they taught me how to behave as I was growing up. What was appropriate behavior and what wasn't.

If some stranger approached me on the street and wanted me to get into a car with him, I said, "No." End of discussion. Sheesh.

Is teaching kids common sense that avant-garde these days?

Clearly there are not just a few of us out there pissed off about this septuplet thing. I've received more mail than I have in a while on this topic, none of it pro-populate-the-world-single-handedly.

I have been informed that the happy couple conceived their first child due to fertility drugs as well, which is why they were at it again. Isn't there some way of lowering the dosage of those things?

Michael S. said:

My reaction to this was to wonder why, when God clearly told them they shouldn't be parents, they chose to ignore her and use drugs instead.

The more I think about this whole case, the more my brain hurts. I'm sure that in a few years when I discover that, due to so much time in front of radioactive computer screens, Darin and I can't have children that I'll feel differently and I'll be screaming for drugs.

But in that case, I'm far more likely to do what Darin's aunt and uncle did--they adopted a couple of kids. (And what's weird is, the two adopted kids look far, far more like the family than their natural son.)

I wrote my paper last night. All 15 pages of it, with horrendous margins and any ugly, oversized font. I came to the conclusion that Meg Ryan is not half the woman Claudette Colbert was, and besides which romantic comedies have it extremely hard today because a)the women are simpletons and b)the leads have to come up with some nonsense reason why they don't have sex within the first 5 minutes.

So today's task was simply to finish my rewrite of Act I of my screenplay. One sequence consisting of a few scenes. I knew what had to happen. Well, I wasn't sure of the details, but when has that ever stopped me? I know point A, I know point B, I get the characters going.

Nothing happened.

I wandered around. I went out to lunch with Darin. I took a walk in the afternoon (big mistake, as it turned out, for my leg). I thought. I thought some more.

Nothing.

I need tomorrow to be a little more productive.

Once more I demonstrate the dangers of what happens if you don't write every day! For those of you at home who say, "I can only write when inspiration hits me," you're going to be sitting there a long time! You have to do a little every day, at least to keep your creative muscles in shape. I took a week off from doing any kind of dramatic writing and now look at me--I'm a mess. Do not do this!

Practice, practice, practice.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

Taking a day or so off and letting my left leg get better. I took a walk this afternoon, when I was blocked, and my left leg was still bothering me a tad.