Efram tried to get out of school today by claiming that as a supporter of the losing Superbowl team, he should be entitled to a day off. More specifically, he told us that he couldn’t suffer a day of emotional abuse at the hands of the school, which is apparently comprised entirely of Ravens fans. In Seattle.
Nice one, I said. But you’re going.
Alright, alright. I actually would have let him stay home.
It takes virtually nothing for me to let a kid stay home. M told me that at some point I have to stop overcompensating for my childhood — for me, staying home would have required either a dangerously high fever (none of this 99.9 or even 100.6 business), or more than a quart of vomit.
But he went, and football season is now over. I can have the television back and I don’t have to hear the boys have the same three discussions over and over again.
As for TV, one of my best friends, who lives in LA, told me to start watching “Parenthood.” While she is one of my favorite people on the planet, and certainly one of the smartest, she and I do not generally agree about TV or books. For example, she loves “Homeland,” and I think that frankly, the emperor has no clothes.
But we started watching. I was happy to see that one of the main characters used to be on “Gilmore Girls,” an old favorite of mine.
“I loved Gilmore Girls!” said M, as we sat watching episode one of Parenthood on the couch in the toy-strewn basement. (There is not a room in this house that these children have not invaded. There are Elmo blocks in my bathroom.)
“Really?” I ask. Can it be? Can he and I actually agree on a television show? Is there a show I have loved that he doesn’t consider silly and soapy and a complete waste of his time?
“Oh,” he said. “I think I meant ‘Happy Gilmore.’ Now THAT was a great movie.”
.. and there went our moment. Gone. Obliterated by Adam bloody Sandler.  Frankly, if given the choice between him and football, I think I’d choose the latter, even if I don’t fully understand what’s going on.