Mila is a television grazer. She essentially wanders the house looking for a victim who will let her take control, but when that fails, she just wanders. She'll go back and forth between televisions hoping for a glimpse of Disney+ or Boss Baby or whatever, with the constant hope that she will manage to gain control.
Let's be honest, it's very rare that she wins with me. I don't bow to threats. What's more, I generally have something boring like The Voice or whatever on. I don't actually care about television, so I turn on generic background noise and call it a day.
But I don't care about it at all.
And I refuse to let Mila cause me to care by turning on something annoying. I want background noise -- things that won't be interesting, but won't be good. THAT is the ticket. It helps if it's something that won't require that I pay attention. That means that I usually don't even know what's on when Mila walks in the room and asks me to change the channel.
I just say "No" automatically. It's best that way.
Tonight Mila wandered into the family room in search of a way to get control over the television. I started to spit out my usual "No," but paused as I realized Mila hadn't actually asked for the remote. There's a script she's supposed to follow, so I was WAAAAAY confused that she wasn't following it. I looked over at her and realized she was frozen in place, staring intently at the TV.
"Who is that?" she finally asked.
It was Lady Gaga. There was an Apple commercial playing and it featured basically a music video with Lady Gaga. Mila stared at it completely engrossed. When it was over, Mila asked me to play it again.
So I rewound the television. Remember when we couldn't do that? Like, NOT THAT LONG AGO? Get off my lawn, whippersnappers. Tivo really did save the day. And don't bother telling me you don't know what Tivo is, young'ins. IT WAS IMPORTANT, OKAY?
On the second viewing, Mila joined the dancing. She imitated Lady Gaga's every move. It was hilarious and adorable and fantastic, so I asked her to do it again.
And again.
And again.
I have very strict rules about small children not being the boss of the TV, and that is exactly why we watched an Apple commercial featuring Lady Gaga at least 20 times. IT WAS TOTALLY MY CHOICE, OKAY?