I should have realized that my boys' television viewing time was on the cusp from acceptable to excessive when Grant yelled for me to "come quick and see what I WOULD LOVE!" This is what I HAD TO SEE.
When he started reciting the Space Bags commercial word for word, I should have turned off the TV set and played a board game. I didn't.
Recent conversations have led me to realize I may be using the 'stupid box,' as Brian refers to it, just a tad wee bit too much.
Me: Grant, I am making pancakes today. You love pancakes. Doesn't that sound great?
Grant: Oh, no thanks, Mom. I will just have pancake puffs instead.
Gavin: (watching me take some vegetables out of the plastic grocery produce bags.)
Me: (cutting, then throwing away the inner core of the pepper)
Gavin: Why are you throwing that part away? Is it yucky?
Me: Yup. You can't eat that part.
Me: Yup. You can't eat that part.
Gavin: You should have used green bags.
Me: (puzzled looking at the bag) That bag has green words on it.
Gavin: No, Mom. GREEN BAGS. They keep all your vegetables fresh for weeks longer.
Me: Why would a green bag keep them fresher longer? It doesn't matter what color the bag is.
Gavin: Mo-o-m. GREEN BAGS, like on TV. The vegetables in the green bags are clean and the other vegetables are dirty.
Me: (goes and googles green bags)
At least my Christmas persuasion convinced them to stop asking for AquaDots.
KEEP BELIEVING
I am so anti-informercial that I refused to order the Magic Bullet, no matter how cool it looked. When Costco got it I thought "Okay, maybe it's legit." Now? Could not possibly live without my Magic Bullet!
ReplyDeleteHmmm. I think I've done this once or twice myself. If only we never had to do laundry, cleaning or WORK we'd just have the time to play the board games....
ReplyDeleteLuke started a conversation with me the other day about those storage bags. He was fascinated.
ReplyDeleteYour boys probably know the "Lionel Coin Bank" commercial very well. That commercial cracks me up, the kids on there sound brain washed. Show this to the boys.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qAT7mUaG9wE&feature=related
I often get the boys to sing that song when Heather is around, in yet another attempt to drive her over the edge.
My son also loves to quote commercials and infomercials. Poor thing...he thinks all of those products are going to be as wonderful as the ads portray them to be. But I guess we now know from the puff pancake experiment that they are not always what they are cracked up to be. (Don't waste your money on that one by the way!)
ReplyDeleteStork, before I knew any better, I called Grant over to watch that youtube on the Lionel Coin Bank with me. I will never do that again. It sounds like something out of Brave New World or something.
ReplyDeleteKEEP BELIEVING
I thought you were going to say the green bags meant the Green Giant vegetables. :-) We recently got a DVR... it has taken over the TV and my boyfriend's brain. He finds the strangest things to record and then uses every waking moment (almost) to watch shows on Sasquatch and Ghost Hunting. Loved the idea of the DVR so I could record One Tree Hill and such.. I had no idea what it would do to our lives. Take it back Time Warner Cable! Please! :-)
ReplyDeleteI am cracking up because my Emma and I just had this conversation about Green Bags yesterday. And every single time we go into Bed, Bath and Beyond there is one of those As seen on TV products and she tells me every reason why we need them! Oh, and we're all about the pancake puffs here too. So funny!
ReplyDeleteLOL! Marketing really works sometimes ;) I'd love me some of those pancake puffs too!
ReplyDeleteMy son asked me this morning if I thought "green bags" really work. I had just about the same conversation you did with your son. Maybe I ought to show him the closet with the games in it.
ReplyDeleteChristina
So funny! I want me some of those green bags though - I have got to see if those things work! Have you tried them yet? See you later. Kellan
ReplyDeleteHa! I'm sure that my daughter will soon begin singing commercial jingles!! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment today...but don't be too jealous...that picture is over a year old...we're not at the beach although I wish we were!
So true.. Not so much for the info commerical as much as theme songs to every show on Noggin..LOL
ReplyDeleteI saw an informercial for the PedEgg...and I'm gonna get it! Walgreens carries it. Uh oh, I just plugged something.
ReplyDeleteAngie, my son walks around saying, "www.pbs.org", so yes, I know the feeling. We've been watching waaay too much boob tube lately.
Isn't that the truth. I've never been brave enough to order one thing off of an infomercial. Those marketing geniuses do have an evil ploy!
ReplyDeleteOh, regarding DSLR settings, have you tried reading some online info:
check this out.
My boys really want that clay/putty stuff that turns green when it's ready to use. Another infomercial invention.
ReplyDeleteOh My God...I want that Pancake Puff pan. For me. I'm 6.
ReplyDeleteYep, they seem to put those commercials on during KIDS' shows! I used to think it was careless marketing, but now I see, they're brainwashing our kids to beg us for stuff 'we need'.
ReplyDeleteI can't tell you how many times my 11 year old has asked for the pancake puff maker!
OMG. My boys are totally watching the same channel. I am laughing so hard because my 4 y/o didn't want just plain old homemade pancakes the other day because he wanted puffs...I obviously haven't been supervising their TV viewing very closely because I didn't know what he was talking about until my 6 y/o recited the commercial word for word to clarify.
ReplyDeleteBoy, those commercials are evil, aren't they? My son is such a parrot for EVERYTHING that is great & nifty & you get TWO free if you call in the next 10 minutes!
ReplyDeleteAt least he's got the concept that at the grocery store, the cereal boxes with toy pictures don't REALLY have a toy in them (shhhh). It's just cereal & they're trying to TRICK kids into buying their cereal by putting toy pictures on the box. We're smarter than that, he says. Love that! ;)
I am so glad we haven't progressed beyond Noggin yet. Though it's a bit disturbing when all of my daughter's imaginary friends are actually television characters.
ReplyDeleteWe found a great way to ween our kids off tv. Children's audiobooks. It's not as good as reading, but it's a great half-step and it's way more engaging than staring at the idiot box. We download them for free at http://www.twirlygirlshop.com/stories-for-kids.
ReplyDelete