Sometimes kids don’t agree on stuff. Sometimes they do.
What movie should we watch?
Agree? No.
However! Sometimes they do agree!
There are just two Popsicles® left. A red one and a blue one. Which one do you want?
Agree? Yes.
Crappy Parenting Law #11: Kids can’t agree on a movie to watch, but they can always agree on the same color Popsicle®…when there is only one left of that color.
This crappy law is courtesy of David Hocker who emailed it to me last week. Thanks!!!
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This is Totoro if you haven’t been introduced. I feel the need to educate the masses about this lovely movie. One of our favorites.
Lol, describes my kids perfectly, lol!
Yeah the thing we’re *agreeing* upon in my house these days is who gets the red plate. Yes. Plate. Why? But the thing is, even if we had TWO red plates, we’d have to fight over who got which red plate!
Save the red plate for special occasions – we had one and used it when a child had: a birthday, a good grade, a significant accomplishment, etc.
Awesome idea! And since both of our names are Karen, I feel the need to let people know we are two different people. I wouldn’t want people thinking you were commenting on your own post… Lol.
Totoro rocks – make sure you check out Ponyo, The secret world of Arrietty – all Miyazaki as well!!!! Awesome movies!!! We take it in turns to choose movies, saves fights most of the time (read: sometimes)
I loved Ponyo
Ditto Ponyo..
My kiddos will still shout “HAM!” completely out of the blue!
I wasn’t big on Ponyo, but love Spirited away, Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle (awesome book too!), Kiki’s Delivery service, and Laputa/Castle in the Sky.
I always get annoyed by Mei’s voice in Totoro. Totoro and Catbus are awesome, but Mei is too damn annoying. Even the new version of her English voice (redone by the evil corporation).
Totoro is one of my kids’ faves! We love all of Myasaki’s movies!
My solution for that is- ok you share the red popsicle and mama will eat the blue one. They quickly realize that fighting over the red is getting them less popsicle.
Hey, yeah! Where’s my popsicle?
Genius!! I’ll try that next time. Why have I not thought of that before!
must remember that!
Woah… I totally heard Mystic Master music playing while I read that post. Can I study at your feet? (Actually, I only have the one, so he has to get into fights with the cat. Which he does.)
my “lonely only” tells the dog “mine” all the time… good thing he’ll have a little brother to agree with soon!
ooooh! genius!
Totoro, Ponyo, Arriety, Spirited Away are all similar
I totally didn’t get it at first when my husband introduced them to our kids but now I am starting to understand 
when I get to watch it for 30 seconds before someone needs me to do something…
Spirited away actually made my oldest cry when he was little. Not at any of the potentially scary parts, but when the you realize that the scary spirit thing is actually just lonely. It’s such a beautiful movie.
We tried Castle in the Sky a few months ago and the three year old begged us to turn off the scary robot. Then he talked about and drew pictures of the robot for weeks and every movie he saw for the next month or two was “not the scary robot movie.”
Arriety was a big hit with all the boys, though, and as someone who has read all the Borrowers novels, I was very excited to share it with them.
Yeah, in Japan it’s well known that these are not kids movies. Some of them are family appropriate, but none of them are made for kids. They’re made for adults. Adults should screen them first before deciding what to show their kids. Just because they’re animated/cartoons doesn’t automatically make them all okay for kids.
I’ve noticed that Americans often have trouble with this fact.
I am amazed at the number of my elementary kids’ friends that are allowed to watch ‘The Simpsons’ and ‘Family Guy’ type shows just because they are cartoons. So inappropriate!
Totoro is what my (almost) 3 year old argues for every.single.time. His 4 year old brother is more of a Nightmare Before Christmas or Lorax fan though. Oh – the joys are 2 boys. I cant wait for little sister to get big enough to be the tie breaker.
My guess is little sister will add a 3rd option: Disney Princess movie to the argument.
And she will win
Yes, that rule is completely true. And I love My Neighbor Totoro too. My daughter watched it a lot when she was little. My favorite Miyazaki film is Howl’s Moving Castle.
Totoro is my little guys’ favorite. We only have it in Japanese and they’ll sit right through to the end. And they don’t speak Japanese!! It’s just that charming.
We’ve all learned to say acorn and soot-sprite, though. I’m totally counting that as my third language.
I need to know- is your fridge really red??
Yes it is. And fabulous.
Love Totoro!! Howl’s Moving CAstle is my favorite
Sometimes I wish we had another TV…..
My kids LOVE Totoro!! I haven’t found many others who know what it is!! If you watch Toy Story 3, a stuffed Totoro is in Bonnies room!
I solve it by only I get to pick the movie. And there are never any Popsicles left – because I locked myself in the bathroom and ate them all :-/
Haha! Glad I’m not the only one who eats all the popsicles…only ours are usually otter pops.
We LOVE Ponyo but haven’t watched Totoro yet. May have to find that one to add to our collection.
I’m sure that if you know about Totoro, then you know about the other Studio Ghibi creations like Ponyo, Castle in the Sky Laputa and Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, all equally beautifully produced and absolutely charming!! Our daughter has been watching them since she was a baby and LOVE them. There’s even a Ghibli Museum in Tokyo if you ever get to Japan.
Love all of those. Nausicaa is one of my top 5 favorite movies of all time! Kids haven’t seen it yet though…though now I’m realizing Crappy Boy is ready for it.
How about Kiki? I don’t know the english name, but she’s a witch. That’s another sweet, kid-friendly one.
Kiki’s Delivery Service here. Good one, I always mean to be Kiki for Halloween, but never have made it happen.
The museum is AMAZING!!!
Yes, if you have not been introduced to the pure genius that is Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, you need to be….. Even the hubs, who normally HATES anime, really likes every single film they have made….. They appeal to so many different age groups at the sme time that you can have a 2 year old, 6 year old, 13 year old, and the 28 year old all watching the same film, and all loving it
Oh my goodness, we love Totoro! My kids can always agree on watching that!
When there is a limited food selection (ie just 1 red popsicle, or maybe during Leftovers Lunch, when there is one serving of each of 5 old meals), I _always_ go youngest to oldest with making choices. As long as there is a predictable pattern, they’re happy with it. Sometimes the youngest will give a spoonful to the disappointed next-one-up if they both wanted the same thing, but it is not at all required.
Hayao Miyazaki’s films are beautiful. I grew up on these movies and still have several of them on VHS (recorded by my grandfather who would send them from Japan to Canada). My children don’t know a lot of Japanese but will still sit through all of them completely engrossed. If you ever come across “Hotaru no haka” (Graveyard of the Fireflies), I don’t recommend it for children as it is so sad. Can’t sit through that one without crying.
OMG I cannot watch that movie without bawling my eyes out!! I had to watch it like twice before I could actually finish it and don’t dare watch it again anytime soon, but it’s a great movie! All of studio ghibli’s movies are freaking amazing!! And even though I’m not from Japan or really speak any Japanese (I’m from Colombia and Spanish is my first language), I find that they’re so much better in Japanese!! I’m not a big fan of any voice overs, ever, with the exception of spirited away and kikis delivery service..those are okay lol im dying to go to Japan!!!
I LOVE Totoro! And I don’t even have kids. But I am constantly telling people with kids about it because it’s so good and my niece and nephew love it.
Yep, happens in my house every day. I think my two do it deliberately just to pick a fight and make me hide in the corner screaming into a pillow lol. Looking forward to the youngest learning to read and write so we can do a secret paper ballot!
Howl’s Moving Castle is another awesome flick from Studio Ghibli.
My kids take turns on whose day it is to choose things. Even days are my son’s days, odd days are my daughter’s. It works beautifully.
We do this, too, and I love it! And on months with 31 days (so there are 2 odds in a row – 31, 1), Mommy gets a day
That means I get to choose the music in the car, what movie we watch, who gets the red Popsicle 
That’s correct. Exactly how it is in my house! I agree with Lisa! Win win for you-free popsicle!
princess mononoke is one of my husband and is fav movies. i just made hom watch totoro this past month and he agrees it is a great starter movie for our LO
My daughter is going to have a Totoro themed 2nd birthday party this year. Totoro & Ponyo are her favorites, and she can say Miyazaki already.
We LOVE Totoro! In fact, my 16 yr. old son received a Totoro beanie type hat for Christmas and has worn it to school! lol
We also love Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Kiki’s Delivery Service. Hiyao Miyazaki is an artist in every sense of the word!
Robin Jingit, in English it’s ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service.’ We all loved that movie! Have been wanting to find other similar ones and now will look for Totoro…
LOVE Totoro. And Kiki’s Delivery Service. We are excited because this week they are playing on the big screen at the indie movie theater here in Tucson (and in Massachusetts, a friend tells me). Ponyo loves ham!!
Our only kid has a small doll as his BF. “Little Boy” must be shown the train track, read books together, sit with us for lunch. Little Boy gets a train to drive but the minute he starts to push it on the tracks – “No! ” Stern finger pointing, “don’t touch!” Then he gives him a different train. Then repeat same scene. Again. And again…
Same thing over a glass of water. little Boy even got told off when I tried to solve it by sharing my water with Little Boy.
“Don’t touch Mommy’s glass!”
Wtf? like you’ve Never ‘shared’ with Mommy?!
I was wracking my brains worried about modelling behaviour. Now I think maybe it’s just a generic need to have another kid to argue with.
In my experience, kids only agree on making adults’ lives just a little bit harder.
Funny that your boys won’t agree on Totoro, since that is the ONLY movie my 12yo and 3yo boys will agree on! I gave it to the 3yo for Christmas, and I think the 12yo was more excited about it than his xbox games. Their father had brought a stuffed Totoro doll home from Japan last year for the (then) 18mo… after watching the movie after Christmas, I wanted to find the doll, but couldn’t. It was eventually located in the 12yo’s bedroom (he was very mum about the whole thing).
Oh god that is so true!! All.the.time….
xx
I had no idea that Popsicle was a registered trademark! I always thought that it was just the generic term for frozen juice on a stick.
We LOVE Totoro! My girls love the cat bus!
LOL Typical behavior of small children. Though I don’t think I’ve ever had to deal with this growing up. But it’s true, which one will win this battle.
My nephew got a beautiful little Totoro backpack, doesn’t care about it yet, he’s only 5 months old.
My kids argue like this constanly!! I struggle when I am buying them something…I’d like to get two different things so that we have variety, but they will just argue, then decide to swap, then one will suddenly not like the swap and MELT! SO, everything I buy I just buy two of the same exact thing. Dumb. Then when the nutty buddies come out, both want vanilla – oops, only one vanilla, both MELT! It’s insane!
I’ve not heard of any of these movies but I will be checking them out, as they have kinda stolen the point to your whole post.
Yes, Totoro! Totoro, Kiki and Ponyo are about the only films from Studio Ghibli that are suitable for small children. My 10 year old, who’s seen and liked lots of adventurous films, thinks Moving Castle, Caste in the Sky and Tales from Earthsea are scary.
thank you for the tip, will try to find Totoro for my girls too, it seems that many people love it so i”m sure we will like it too!
I’m to the point where I’ll intentionally ask my kids an “a” or “b” question just for shits and giggles because I’m 99% sure that one will choose a and the other will choose b. It’s like my own little lab.
You are right on the money. Brilliant and hilarious, as usual!
Grazi for sharing
Then just as you get your head around the fact your kids agree on wanting the same thing when they physically can’t have it, and when you’re ready for all out war, one chooses one colour and miraculously the other child chooses the other colour. It happened to me only this evening. I guess the answer on how to avoid an argument is to resign yourself to the fact there will be an argument. Under-estimate in other words. I’m still recovering from the shock of just how simple and friendly my kids decision making was this evening. ‘I’ll have the orange one’ ‘okay I’ll have the green one’ But does that mean they’ll pay me back tomorrow??!!?
Totoro rules. Love the kitty bus.
We use a “Kid of the Day” system. I read a great article about it and put it into practice about 6 months ago. Has been working great for us, since we have 3 kids. The kid of the day gets to choose the movie, gets to stay in the bath the longest, gets first pick, etc. We rotate each morning (with big fanfare) and the kids know if it’s not your day today it will be tomorrow or the next day. What’s great about it is there is no discussion. The kid of the day gets first choice. Hope it’s ok to post a link to the article. It’s a great concept and has been working for us! http://www.parents.com/parenting/better-parenting/positive/kid-of-the-day/
Ooooo, what great disappointment when they grow up and find out that they only get one day a year (their birthday) and that quickly gets whittled away to a quick 4 minutes while somebody sings Happy Birthday and you puff out the candles.
I make my own popsicles. They’re all the same. My nephews don’t get to argue about it.
My son screamed last night during the whole beginning of Ice Age (his first time seeing it)…first I thought he was being dramatic and silly…but I bent around to look at his face and he was genuinely terrified that the iceberg was coming down on the squirrel. SO. We will be checking out Totoro as a possibly calmer movie choice…it is, yes? (seems to be. What happened to the old style of movies? Lady and the Tramp was a great 2nd to Ice Age…but after that I’m stuck.)
I remember being at my best friend’s who had kids before me and learning an important parenting lesson – she asked her eldest if he wanted a pink or brown straw for his milk (strawberry or chocolate). He wanted the pink one, at which point little sister pipped up that she wanted a ‘ink one too. As there was only one pink one left she gave that to the son, and gave her daughter a brown one saying, and here is the other pink straw for you dear.
Of course the son nearly ruined it by saying, ‘but mummy, that isn’t a pink straw’ – but luckily she hushed and I tried to distract.
And I can confirm, at 8 she now definitely knows what pink is.
This is my same friend who learnt her deceptive parenting tricks from her mother, who told them when the ice cream van plays music it means that they have run out of ice cream!
When my boys were younger (14 and 12 now) and they fought over something continuous, like who sits in which chair at dinner or who gets the couch and who gets the love seat for watching TV, I would add it to our family calendar on the kitchen wall and assign them by weeks to those items. Whoever had the favored spot at dinner had the love seat that week, so the other kid had the couch. My husband (second husband so not their dad but they were 6 and 4 when we married so right at prime age for this type of behavior) was amazed. Arguments about those things disappeared! Over time those arguments went away and others arrived so the calendar shifted along with it. Don’t have to do that now and I don’t hear arguments about those things either. They learn to not be so trivial. Motherhood Psychology!
No, I love that movie! And no, I want the red popsicle!
This strategy worked for a little while… Alternate kids/turns. You pick three movies know would be in the approved zone for all kids. Kid of the day gets to pick one of them – IN PRIVATE. Everyone knows it’s that kid’s choice, but the choices appeal to most.
Kid over here loves Totoro so much she named our cat after him.
Two of my favorite movies! Love Princess Mononoke too <3
I'm with the boys though; I'll always pick the red Popsicle. They can split the blue one LOL
my DD LOVES princess monenoke, always asks for ‘San’ shes only 2yrs, i try to avoid her watching it after she started to pretend to hit me with a ‘sword’ :/ our family favorite atm is Howls moving castle and Totoro
Every kid ever.
So, my kids, who are now 20 and 17, loved Totoro. I loved Totoro. I would watch it by myself. Except we don’t have it in the DVD version, we have it in VHS. So I can’t play it on anything. Will people look at me funny if I go buy a DVD of Totoro to watch by myself?
If you liked Nausicaa the movie, you should read the graphic novel. There is more to the story and a great story it is. I do warn you that it ruins the movie a bit.
My husband and I bought ourselves the entire Studio Ghibli collection for Christmas…we didn’t even have our daughter in mind when we picked it out, but thankfully it turns out she loves all the movies. Win/win.
Yay!! I just had to tell you my FAVOURITE movie of all time is Howl’s Moving Castle…. also by Hayao Miyazaki! And it’s not just a family favourite, it’s my 23 yr old, single self favourite movie! Some people think i’m crazy to love such a bonkers movie but I don’t care what they think! I will have to watch Totoro with my sister soon (also a Miyazaki fan!!)
I freaking LOVE your blog!! Every single one of them cracks me up and totally makes my day!! Thanks so much!! By the way, now that I know you love totoro and studio ghibli films I love your blog even more!!
you rock!!