Sensory Overload

Ok, let it be said that I do not get out much. That is one part circumstances and one part free will. (I am a closet homebody.) However, I am also somewhat of a protester of popular culture. Now before anyone runs off screaming - I am not a member of some secret anti- group , I am not stock piling beans and bottled water, nor am I encouraging anyone to blow up their TVs. (although ours may implode all on its own. It is 11 years old and is color challenged. Really, it is lacking blue - which if the Smurfs were still around, might be a problem.)

All in all, it is true, I am living under a very large and cozy rock - not unlike a potato bug, snail or a slug. I freely admit it. But I have digressed.

The entire point of this post is to describe a birthday party that we just went to - at Chucky Cheese Pizza. WOW, was it an extravaganza of noise, lights, people, kids, the badly dressed and screaming animals singing on TVs. I was so overwhelmed. It was so loud, I could hardly talk to other moms. But all that aside, the really scary part was people were waiting in line for up to a half hour - all to enter this noisy soup of popular culture.

Now I will admit, I have not been to this type of place since I was about 8 years old. On occasion and for some work related functions I have been to the adult version - Dave & Busters or GameWorks - but really this was more than my head could take in. Too loud and too many people. Plus I was somewhat obsessed with the fact that there appeared to only one way out. Is that legal?

I am just not sure if I am doing my kids any favors by avoiding these types of place. I got alot of strange looks, when I volunteered that I had never been there. I am not sure video games are all that good for kids. I would much rather take them to the library or the park. Maybe a museum or swimming. Media is so present in their lives already, that I just like to expose them other things. That said, I worry that L, might be culturally behind a bit when she hits kindergarten - in that we do not watch Disney, we have not heard about high school musical or the Cheetah girls (huh?)

All that aside - she seems ok. She knows Dora and Diego and she has been to the Caribbean, Canada, Europe and many places in the US - so maybe she is behind in popular culture - but boy does she have frequent flyer miles. Which I suspect will be more important to her as she gets older.

So I am going to go rest my eyes and head and try to get the beeping to stop.