Originally Posted on NYMomsblog March 29, 2010For better or worse, I grew up in a stereotypical 80’s family in that we ate our dinner while watching television. After a long commute from downtown Washington, all my father wanted to do was relax, eat his dinner and watch the news. As a result, I grew up watching the local and national news which explains why I actually enjoy watching the news now. The downside to this need to be informed is that I have carried on this tradition with my daughter until she was about five when I realized (duh) that the news of today is pretty gruesome and much more sensationalistic than when I was growing up.
So instead of watching the news at dinner time, I started watching the news and TMZ, (go ahead, mock me and/or blame me for being part of the celebrity journalism explosion) while my daughter was in the bath.
It did not occur to me that she might actually be watching or listening to TMZ while she bathed until I showed her clips of Kate Gosselin (formerly of Jon & Kate plus eight fame) on Dancing with the Stars this past week. Yes, I admit it, we were early viewers of the show. My daughter and I loved that show. Whatever your feelings about Kate are and I am sure it’s of the hate variety, my daughter has no ill will towards Kate. She actually quoted her once. When I told my daughter to finish her dinner, she told me “Kate says you should stop eating when you are full.”
As we were watching Kate with her new long hair, my daughter asked about Jon. “Is Jon there at the show?” “No, I said, he is with the kids.” And out of the blue, she says “Aren’t they divorced?” This came as a total surprise to me. “How do you know that? Did you hear that at school?” “No, she said, you won’t like where I heard it from.” Now my curiousity was up, she has some rather bright and mature little first grade friends but discussing Jon and Kate, I think not. “I heard it on TMZ,” she said rather sheepishly. To say that I cringed and felt somewhat embarrassed that I am exposing my daughter to gossip so early is an understatement.
I can only assume that she is listening to TMZ while she is in the bath so needless to say that my obsessive need to keep up with celebrity updates on TMZ will have to wait until after she is asleep.
