THE COSBY SHOW...

Can you here the soundtrack in your head? "Na-na-na---na-na-na"...hey I think I am going to add good ol' Bills mad dancing skills to my "tool box of crazy" and looking like a total geek and cracking those shells-o-mad for my kids.

Thanks for the phone call Chad and Noelle.
You made my crazy night soo much better while braving "The Nine" with 5 with pukes and minus one Hubbie, grown-up talk is ALWAYS welcome! You guys are amazing!

Sooo I can't remember who, ahem WHOM it was that recommended it, but boy-OH-boy am I glad they did!
We don't watch TV anymore, (unless it is American Idol night...and shhh I may be a tad obsessed with "Glee" and would happily re-live my high school years on that show). We don't have cable, we have rabbit ears (how old school are we?)...Netflix Instant Stream via Wii...Oh baby! It is like opening a UNIVERSE of options for $8.99 a month.

Sooo (squirrel) Sorry, brain lapse, I was talking about "The Cosby Show"...I am sure you remember giggling to Rudy and Cliff, the way Claire never took any crap from her kids. Cliff and Clair LOVED each other and respected each-other, and REQUIRED that kind of LOVE and respect from their kids.

Weird I know...cause most of the Disney crapola on T.V. is all about non-existent parents, that are STU-PID. They are generally the BUTT of all jokes, or having the wool pulled over their eyes by their incredibly smarter, tech savvy teen/preteen/children. (Because what kind of parent are you if you don't let your kids do a live-stream-web-show out of their bedrooms?) Thank you soo much Disney for teaching my kids, social norms and what "real life is like". Apparently ALL children on their sixteenth birthdays should be surprised and receive and bran-spanking-new car with a giant red bow around the top. What-were-we-thinking giving our daughter a BIKE, Dictionary, Church Dress and making homemade cup cakes?

*DISCLAIMER*- Hey if you let you kids watch the Disney channel,...no judgment here, I PROMISE...I am just raising 5 out of nine kids that did NOT grow up in a family, nor in the American culture.*

Internationally adopted children, and even A LOT of Foster kids from the good-ole US-of-A have a warped understanding of what a functioning Child-parent relationship looks like. Most Media and the things that they hear and watch,are the social cues they get. FREAKY huh? Why would, what they have in you, in your home, be their "idea" of "normal"....wasn't what they had before normal?
Why do they seek creating DRAMA in your home, because that *is* their "NORMAL", is. It's where they are comfortable, even if it doesn't make them happy.

I have found times, particularly with my teen, that she is giving me a full soliloquy of DRAMA, that is sooo not her, not her normal voice inflections, nothing about it seems real. Well, that is because it wasn't. She was trying on "something that she saw". Kids are like sponges they absorb and Mimic, until they develop their own sense of self. Try figuring out a family culture, if you have never had one!

*Yet another Disclaimer*- Most attachment books and some parenting books do NOT recommend the use of ANY television..I get that,sorry but *gasp* I am human ..and the Boob-Tube occasionally keeps my kids from killing each-other, and lets me go to the bathroom. You see it is my friend. Not ALL day every-day...but yeah, I'm a fan.

SOOO lets give em some GOOD MEDIA, heck I am constantly shouting at Cliff, "Good one, I'm going to have to use that", when he is acting like a TOTAL goof, while parenting his kids! There are 8 seasons of at least 24 episodes each, you can get them Instant stream NOW on Netflix, you can buy em of Amazon.
The episodes are only 20 minutes long...not a bad time for a bargaining tool, eh?

Why I LOVE the Cosby Show:

*They are Brown, my kids are Brown, and can relate, my pink kids LOVE it too.
*Claire and Cliff are out standing members in society.
* They are well-read and both practicing Dr. and a Lawyer.
*They openly LOVE each-other in front of their children.
*They set boundary's with their children for their privacy.
*They seem (on a PG level) to have a good Intimate life. (How IMPORTANT is it for our kids to see that)
*They LAUGH A LOT , as a couple, as a family.
* They are Goofy together, spend time individually with their kids together.
*They're relationships are engaged, they look at each-other when they talk.
* One kid generally messes up or has a solvable problem by the end of the 20 minutes.
*Mom and Dad DON'T fix it for them, but lovingly give advice, guide or allow the child to suffer natural coincidences.
* The kids have chores, are expected to help one-another or their parents.
* They don't take rude, entitled, spoiled behavior lightly.
*They Volunteer and serve their community.
*They have all kinds of mixed race, religion, family friends,clients and neighbors.
* I still giggle during Rudy's Goldfish Funeral.

I love that my kids LAUGH out LOUD, I love after 20 minutes we can talk about what happened on the show.
I LOVE that my teenager says "Wow Mom, she wouldn't let Theo talk that way to her either!"

Sooo give your old Fav Family show a try...think about the things your kiddo's watch and what they interpret to be "normal".