A few years ago, I had a tweet go viral that read, “I was killing it as a parent until Netflix removed that show my 4-year-old watched on repeat.” I was reminded of that quip when my now 7-year-old daughter found out about The Boss Baby: Back in the Crib, and she more or less freaked out. Meanwhile, I groaned ever so slightly knowing that I would, without a doubt, watch the full season a minimum of 10 times, not because I wanted to, but because Aspen would insist.
And don’t get me wrong, I find Boss Baby hilarious. But I don’t know if I find any show enjoyable enough to watch a full season 10 times, maybe more. Well, outside of The Office, which is amazing, but not exactly the best show to watch on repeat with my 7-year-old. Not that there aren’t correlations between Boss Baby and The Office. There totally are. But as a father, I’ve been in this position a lot over the years.
With Aspen, I’ve watched Miraculous, Samurai Rabbit, Kung-Fu Panda, Masha and the Bear and a million other shows for young kids on repeat. I watch them for the first time, and even the second or third, and I laugh. We snuggle on the sofa. It’s an awesome father-daughter moment. Then we watch them again... and again... and again, until I have most of the lines memorized. And each time I suggest that we watch something different or try to branch out, I get a hard no from my daughter, and we end up watching the show yet again. Apparently, a good children’s show is a ritual that has to run its course, and regardless of my attempts to redirect my daughter toward something different to spice up the living room playlist, there’s no avoiding it. And like any loving parent, I agree to watch the show again and again, not because I love any of these shows enough to watch them on repeat, but because Aspen loves them and I love her.
I think this is one of the most under-discussed elements of being a parent. There’s something about watching shows like Boss Baby over and over with my daughter (or any of my children for that matter), seeing her light up, listening to her tell me about the different characters and seeing how excited she is for me to be involved in her world that makes repeat viewing not only for her, but for us. And it took me a few years of being a father to recognize how important these rituals are.
As we sat down to watch the first season of The Boss Baby: Back in the Crib, it was exactly what I’d come to expect: Aspen snuggled into my side, my arm around her, her brown head resting on my chest, her little feet up on the coffee table. She told me about Baby Corp and the special baby formula that makes adults turn into babies. I laughed at that first episode when the adult boss baby went into hiding for his adult white collar crimes by turning back into a baby, and all of it felt like something that I could see a white collar criminal actually doing. We chuckled together about the elderly lady who was chronically pinching baby cheeks and discussed our family member, who will go unnamed, who happens to have the exact same painful habit.
We sat on the sofa, and I listened and I asked questions, many of which I already knew the answers to, because I’d watched all three movies and all four seasons of The Boss Baby: Back in Business countless times. Nevertheless, I let Aspen explain. I asked her more questions, and she taught me the backstory on a show I’d seen a bazillion times, but I let her teach me just the same. And I’ll be honest, we do this a lot. She talks about a show, and I listen, and I ask questions, not because I’m looking for answers, but because I want her to know that I’m interested in her, her life and her interests.
I often tell my children that love is a verb. It’s an action, and it needs to be shown as well as told. I think moments like these, sitting and engaging with my children, listening to them talk about something that they’re really interested in, makes that idiom of love being a verb very true. I think parents act on their love every day with young children without realizing its impact. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that watching kid-focused programming with your child, even with a show on repeat, is a sure fire way to connect.
As Aspen and I finished out the final episode of Boss Baby together, she asked me a question that I knew was coming, because she’d asked it so many times before: “Can we watch it again?” I looked at the time, and said, “It’s bedtime, kiddo.” Then I said something that I knew she’d take as a promise but really was non-committal. “Maybe tomorrow.” She smiled up at me, and I knew that there was no maybe about it. We’d be watching Boss Baby first thing in the morning.
