A Little Girl’s Thoughts on The Grinch

Maybe now that I’m getting older I’m becoming more sentimental. I don’t know why, but over the past few days I’ve really been thinking about the memories that Gavin and Marley will have of their childhood. Especially surrounding Christmas, as this should be a very happy, loving, magical time for kids. I cherish the Christmas memories that I have from when I was younger. Decorating the tree, drinking egg nog, shaking my presents while trying desperately to guess what they were. All of these things meant a lot to me, and I want my kids to be able to look back on their childhood with the same fondness.

So, when I saw that Dr. Suess’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” was coming on, I jumped at the chance to watch it with Marley. Gav was off doing other things, and had no interest in some silly Christmas cartoon. So, I curled up on the couch with my cuddle monkey, ready to make some memories. I always enjoyed watching this when I was younger, as it just didn’t seem like Christmas in our house until we watched that sneaky little Grinch do what he did best.

As a matter of fact, Marley kind of favors Cindy Lou Who, although she doesn’t agree. She actually tried to ninjy my face off when we were discussing the resemblance. I survived, thanks to my cat-like reflexes and the fact that I am taller, bigger, and stronger than her. Her two foot reach didn’t help her much, either.

After forcing me to admit that I was absolutely crazy for thinking that she looked like a cartoon character, we settled down and actually started enjoying it. She laughed when he tied the antler to his dog’s head, which made me a little uneasy. I’m expecting any day to walk around the corner of the house and see her holding Echo, our black lab, down while desperately trying to tie a tree branch to her head. We talked about how he took everything, even the leaves off the plants, so that no one could enjoy Christmas. She was so amazed by how much work went into sneaking everything out, and how many decorations the Who’s actually had. It filled up his entire sleigh, which she thought was just ridiculous. We didn’t discuss how many decorations she felt the entire town should have, but I get the feeling that she has the “less is more” mentality.

By the end she was actually cheering for the Grinch, and was so very into the cartoon. When it was over, as the credits started scrolling up the screen, I asked her what she thought. I don’t really know what I expected her to say. Something about how great it was that they were actually going to enjoy Christmas despite the fact that they woke up to absolutely nothing but the company of each other would have been nice. Maybe I wanted her to say that she was proud of the Grinch for changing his outlook, that he was capable of being a good person, a quality role-model. I would have liked for her to talk about why the Grinch was so grumpy in the beginning, but after seeing how great it is to actually enjoy an occasion, that he was changed for the better.

Nah, that wasn’t at all what she was thinking about.

“He looks like he smells reeeeaaaaallll bad.”

He is green and furry, after all, and he lives in a cave. Sigh. Maybe the memories that we want them to have are just not the memories they are going to take with them.

**About the Author: Bartimus Prime is a SASD (Stay at Stove Dad), working full-time in the restaurant industry and full-time as Daddy to a genius 7 year-old son recently diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome and a 4 year-old daughter recently diagnosed with a shoe and purse addiction. Married for over 8 years to the same woman, despite all of his embarrassing socially awkward moments and unimpressive ability to act intelligent. His rants and sometimes less-than-superb parenting skills are on display on his blog, I Can’t See Cause You’re Talking Too Loud