I read on one of the other Blogs (sorry, but I can't remember which one now) that the adoption storyline in Stuart Little is not the most sensitive treatment of the matter. To be honest, I had not really thought about it. I'd like to think that I catch negative media images about adoption and that while I might not necessarily shelter my chidren from those images, I am able to judge the impact on them and make a decision about the need for further discussion. However, the Stuart Little thing went right over my head.

The bit where Stuart's first parents show up, decide to reclaim him, and his adoptive parents just hand him over is the part that didn't settle with the writer. I had a forehead slapping moment where I chastised myself for not realizing how upsetting this could be to an adopted child, specifically, my adopted children. We have the DVD of the movie, but no one has hauled it out to watch it in more than a year. For a brief moment I thought about removing it from the DVD collection then decided that was a bit extreme. I figured I'd just cross the bridge when I got to it.

Then it happened. On Monday night while I was working in my study I could hear the television droning on in the background from the other room. Suddenly the awareness dawned on me that they were watching(dahdahdahDAHHHHHH)Stuuuarrrt Liiiiiittttle! Arrrghhhh!

Like that character from The Matrix movie, feeling like I was moving in slow motion captured with a 360 degree shot, I raced from my study into the family room, shouting (in my head) nooooooooo and (in my head) throwing myself parallel to the floor across the front of the television screen.

I rounded the corner in a bit of a frantic pace in real time and all three of my kids gave me a puzzled look. I tried to sound calm as I sat down and started asking questions about the movie while surreptiously trying to figure out if they had already gotten to "that part" yet. Now completely confused by my presence at the umpteenth family viewing of Stuart Little all three are staring at me. I asked if they were at the part where Stuart's other parents showed up. Yes, they were at that part. To be continued...