Before & After Kids: TV and Radio

Before becoming a parent, there are certain parts of life that you know for certain will change, like sleep patterns and coffee intake. Then there are the other, more unexpected changes, like car rides, house departure rituals, and dinner excursions. And some changes are inevitable, but forgotten until they actually happen, like radio and TV choices.

Before Kids

TV and radio served as background noise to car rides and evenings multi-tasking between homework, grading, and whatever else was more important than actually focusing on The Real Housewives. Sure, there were some shows that Mama and I cared about, but even those were watched with half our focus elsewhere. And on weekends,  it was either football,  a rerun on HGTV, or clearing out the DVR from the previous week.

I also never really listened to the radio with much intent, other than trying to avoid commercials, which is still the case when I’m stuck on the horrendous LA freeway. If I was feeling particularly “musical,” I’d throw on Pandora and avoid the Top 40 repetition on every other FM station.

After Kids

Both radio and TV have become two more tools in our ever-expanding parental toolbox.

We resisted introducing Isabel to TV for a very long time because all the “experts” convinced us that we’d ruin our precious little angel. Then we succumbed to the persuasive powers of a toddler, and begrudgingly welcomed Elmo into our lives.

Elmo is like the gateway drug to children’s TV. First it’s the little red puppet, then the chuffing and shunting of Thomas the train (these British terms still puzzle me), and before long the whole family finds themselves humming theme songs and fiending for the next episode of animated entertainment.

However, whereas TV is sometimes used to grab a few minutes of toddler silence so we can gulp down our coffee and scarf our Saturday morning toast, radio can be much more than a simple distraction for a hangry child—it has the potential to make or break a car ride.

If the Pandora gods are looking after us, “Elmo’s Song” will be followed by “Wheels on the Bus”, “E-I-E-I-O,” “Itsy Bitsy Spider,” multiple versions of the “ABCs,” and “No More Monkeys…” (this progression has occurred before and it was glorious). But, if for some reason we are being punished, then we’re stuck with sleepy Raffi, spastic Alvin and the Chipmunks, and a random instrumental. And just the other day I frantically searched through three “Frozen”-related channels, maxing out the allotted skipping on each, just to find “Let It Go!” (Seriously Pandora, this should not have been so difficult.)

Let me go be smart and create a car playlist on one of the other internet radio stations, so that the danger of not finding the right song pre-meltdown can hopefully be lessened. Peace out!