The Arthur-Dora Principle

It’s a big day. (But I will acknowledge, it will not seem as big of a day to those of you who don’t watch children’s television.)

As I was burning oatmeal (as opposed to making it for breakfast, because who doesn’t adore the smell of freshly-burned oatmeal on a cool fall morning?!) I listened to the sound of the t.v. in the living room.

Uno and Dos have been in love with Arthur lately.

(We cut them off of Calliou, which is Uno’s “most favorite program of her whole life” because, well, Calliou speaks like a baby and we’re just not interested in role modeling vocal behaviors we find annoying. I’ve also nixed the Wonderpets from the line up because I believe kids should be getting vocal input from people who can speak correctly instead of that lispy Duck creature. I know, I know, it’s awful but that’s just the way we feel about it.)

Anyway, I was listening to Arthur and his current problems while I slaved over the hot stove and burned our breakfast.

Right there, in the middle of domestic bliss, I had an epiphany:

We have completed the Arthur-Dora Principle.

What is that, you ask?

That is the children’s television threshold when you are free of a strange, orange-tinted little bilingual girl squeaking about her nasal-toned map and Swiping Fox. The boots-loving monkey and random unicorns and rainbows move on. Suddenly you are free of pleas and whines for lighting up Dora shoes and magic stars or what not.

Instead you move into the land of Arthur, where their problems are slightly more grounded in reality and you can sneak in the occasional Word World and Super Why and believe your children are practicing early literacy skills.

It’s a big day.

Even more importantly, it means you kept the little suckers you spawned alive long enough to develop a little more taste and not have to be encouraged to roll around on the floor or clap for audience interaction!

And that, my friends, is a feat even more significant than burning oatmeal!

Ahhh. We’ve made it past the Arthur-Dora Principle. I wonder what many-splendored glories are waiting ahead of us?!