Maybe this isn\u2019t a good idea. I remember thinking this as we\nsat down on the sofa and flipped on the TV. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And when I recall thinking this in the past, it definitely was NOT good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was the time when my daughter was just a wee-little\nsnap and I showed her a scene from the movie, \u201cBeetlejuice.\u201d She was 4 years\nold and I played the part where two ghosts are trying to run new owners out of\ntheir house by making them dance around the dinner table to Harry Belafonte\u2019s\n\u201cDay-O.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a really funny scene and super-catchy for kids \u2026 right\nup until the moment that the dinner party collapses into their seats while the\nshrimp cocktails jump up like hands and grab their faces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SHRIMP \u2026 GRAB \u2026 THEIR \u2026 FACES!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My daughter quietly turned away from the screen muttering,\n\u201cWhy did hands come out of the table?\u201d \u2026 along with something about the phone\nnumber for Child Services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I would spend several years explaining that hands don\u2019t\nreally jump out of tables and that shrimp aren\u2019t devilish creatures. Rather,\nthey\u2019re something that should be devoured ravenously after boiling them to\ndeath and tearing off their outsides. (That didn\u2019t go well, either.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019ve been there, you know brushes with scary movies and\nkids don\u2019t usually end well. They cause sleepless nights \u2026 for me! Because my\nwife would make me go down and sit with her, or read to her until she fell\nasleep, or respond to cries in the middle of the night that the shrimp wanted\ntheir tails back. Ever had to check under a bed with the help of a flashlight\nand a rusty machete? Yep, did it to myself. I was usually the cause. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And even though she is now 13, this is what I was thinking as\nthe two of us sat down to watch: \u201cThe Shining.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Shining,\u201d of all movies! NOT \u2026 GOOD! SHRIMP \u2026 FACES!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My daughter and I have been reading the book, and she\nstarted to ask about watching the film, a movie my wife had strictly banned\nuntil she was 38. But for some reason she relented on two conditions: 1) It was\nviewed during the day, and 2) I approved of watching it with her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which is just straight up unfair because she knows darn well\nI don\u2019t have the common sense of a sock with a hole in it. Of course I\u2019m going\nto approve! I have clearly demonstrated this with all the irreparable\npsychological damage I\u2019ve done in the past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we sat down together, I remember thinking, \u201cmaybe this ISN\u2019T\na good idea.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s \u201cThe Shining,\u201d after all. Jack Nicholson\u2019s scowl alone will\nkeep you up at night. Blood pours from elevator shafts. There\u2019s a naked dead woman\nin a bathtub who comes to life. Late 1970s polyester was NOT a good look. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But we locked in and did it. Watched the whole thing.\nStraight on through. And how times have changed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat was it?\u201d my daughter asked afterward, visibly\ndisappointed. \u201cWhat was all the hype? It wasn\u2019t that good, and certainly not\nscary. It didn\u2019t even follow the book.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Uh, I was scared. I pee-ed my pants twice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, boy were we a long way from face-grabbing shrimp and\nthe terror it breeds. It felt like a new chapter, and one more sign that life\nkeeps changing. That she was growing up.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My daughter then turned to me and said: \u201cSo \u2026 why don\u2019t we\nwatch something really scary next, like Freddy Krueger.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sock with the hole in it finally had the good sense to\nanswer, \u201cNO WAY!!!\u201d and then went and checked under all of the beds. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maybe this isn\u2019t a good idea. I remember thinking this as we sat down on the sofa and flipped on the TV. <\/p>\n
And when I recall thinking this in the past, it DEFINITELY was NOT good. <\/p>\n
There was the time when my daughter was just a wee-little snap and I showed her a scene from the movie, \u201cBeetlejuice.\u201d She was 4 years old and I played the part where two ghosts are trying to run new owners out of their house by making them dance around the dinner table to Harry Belafonte\u2019s \u201cDay-O.\u201d <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a really funny scene and super-catchy for kids \u2026 right up until the moment that the dinner party collapses into their seats while the shrimp cocktails jump up like hands and grab their faces.<\/p>\n
SHRIMP \u2026 GRAB \u2026 THEIR \u2026 FACES!!!<\/p>\n
My daughter quietly turned away from the screen muttering, \u201cWhy did hands come out of the table?\u201d \u2026 along with something about the phone number for Child Services. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[575,557,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2019-nutshells","category-getting-old-er-older","category-parenthoodandchildren"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1991,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990\/revisions\/1991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}