You’d think we time-warped back to the 1960s in my house.
Cordy’s newest obsession is the Beatles. This happens every few months. She’ll find something new to fixate on, and it will become her go-to conversation starter, or excuse, or comfort phrase when she’s over-stimulated.
And while an obsession with John, Paul, Ringo and George wouldn’t be so bad, the truth is they aren’t the Beatles that have infested her imagination.
It’s these:
This obsession was triggered over one friggin’ commercial. She happened to see a commercial for The Wonder Pets Save the Beetles while watching Noggin, and suddenly her world revolved around four bugs with bowl cuts.
Do you think the beetles will come to my house?
Will I see the beetles soon?
Mommy, the beetles are trapped!
Are the beetles stuck in a cave?
Don’t forget lunch for the beetles, too!
After days of this, I searched to find when the damn show would be on and Tivo’d it, thinking that she would watch it and then lose interest.
Nope.
They’ve now gone beyond the show to their own world. She has names for them, she draws them, she creates wild stories about them. They appear in her dreams, they keep her safe, they apparently like PB&J sandwiches and they get trapped in caves a lot. I hear something about the beetles at least once every half hour.
But some variation of When will I see the beetles? is now her verbal filler. She uses it whenever she has nothing else to say, or doesn’t know how to respond in a conversation. And Aaron and I have reached our point of frustration most days. You can only take so many questions about the beetles until you want to throw yourself into a pit of flesh-eating beetles just to end the auditory assault. I’m not kidding – it’s worse than the preschooler Why? question.
So until this obsession ends, we tell her she’ll see the beetles in her dreams and we let her watch Wonder Pets Save the Beetles every other day. I’m hoping her love for the beetles will fade like boy-bands from the 90s and I’ll gladly delete the show from Tivo.
Although the past two days, I think I’m seeing a hint of the next obsession coming soon:
Mommy, how does the TV work?
I think I’m going to call up Time Warner and let them explain that one. For what I pay for cable, their customer support from India can satisfy my four year old’s curiosity over and over again.
My daughters filler sentence is “why do I never go to Hawaii?” I tell her to ask her father. I’m hoping she wears him down.
But I know what you mean about the commercial stuff. She has been asking to watch Yo Gabba Gabba. So I turn it on. And she says “No, the Jack Black one!” Sigh.
When DuckyBoy was almost 3 he watched an old Hallmark video of The Ugly Duckling story. It adds a character named Scruffy. His first obsession, and his fillers, became: “I’ll be Ugly Duckling, you be Scruffy Mouse…” and “Let’s tell a story about Ugly Duckling and Scruffy Mouse.”
But, I hate to tell you, I think it was a year. I’d pick him up from preschool and we’d play or tell a story about Ugly Scruffy. I’m sure it was his comfort loop when he was overwhelmed by the rest of his life.
You have my sympathies. It’s OK to tell her there are times when you just can’t deal with hearing it anymore. That’s an important social skill to learn — not to bore people with your obsession.
We’ve been fighting this one with Dumbo. I’ve seriously contemplated breaking the DVD.
hello… hapi blogging… have a nice day! just visiting here….
My son’s current obsession is werewolves. Before that it was vampires…and of course we still love dinosaurs and anything prehistoric.
If I am dragged to the computer to look at werewolves on youtube.com one more time I think that my head might explode.
You have my sympathies.
I have a feeling this is going to be worse then the Boinga Song on Noggin.
I am bracing myself for the worst
Why wouldn’t the Beetles like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? They’re tasty!
you can SO do this walk! If you’re doing the Shred, you can do a five mile walk.
Tink *~*~*
We are big Beatles fans here and big Wonder Pets fans too. Our current obsession is shots sadly. My day is filled with questions about will I get a shot on my 6th birthday, how about my 7th, will I ever get another finger prick, etc…
I’m a fellow Savvy CE and I wanted to email with you a little about life in Columbus. We may be moving there soon…
Vanessa