<p>As I struggle with what to get my 21 year old S and 18 year old D this Christmas, I find myself reflecting on what they were preoccupied with a decade ago. How much easier it was! And this got me thinking of what defined their childhood: So here goes, join in:</p>
<p>Sesame Street
The Lion King
Raffi
Leggos
Playmobile Sets
Brio Trains
Thomas the Tank Engine (with both George Carlin and Ringo Starr as Mister Conductor)
Pete and Pete (filmed in our former neighborhood for a bit)
Ghostwriter
Gameboy
Treasure Mountain, etc.
Wishbone
Toy Story
Space Jam</p>
<p>Little Mermaid
Sesame Street
Lion King
Beanie Babies
Littlest Pet Shop
Polly Pocket
Tamagotchi
Pikachu (not the rest of the pokemon)
Barbies
Sony video camera (and homemade animated Barbie movies - DD discovered how to use the frame by frame filming feature of her camera)
Lots of acrylic paint from a local art supply shop
Sculpey clay
Holes (both book and movie)
Intuos tablet and Photoshop
Personal web page
… sniff!</p>
<p>When my oldest daughter graduated high school three years ago we had an all night party for the seniors on grad night (as I’m sure many communities do to prevent tragedies on prom or grad night. ) The theme that year was centered around all of the toys that these kids had played with as children. Giant Power rangers greeted them at the door, a life-sized barbie kitchen was built and enormous lego blocks were everywhere. I was in charge of crating a mural of giant toys from the nineties. Nestled among all of the barbies, beanie babies and legos, I snuck in a painting of my D’s favorite stuffed animal. The one that she slept with every night. She was thrilled and I have a picture of her standing in front of it at the party. It was such a fun theme to work on and the kids were so enthusiastic about it.</p>
<p>Ghostwriter! The first show my kids ever watched regularly on TV! They were pretty much Sesame Street / Barney / Thomas - free, but we were all obsessed with Ghostwriter. I saw one of the kids from that in something else recently, but I can’t remember who or what. I’m sure Ghostwriter contributed heavily to their more recent Veronica Mars fandom.</p>
<p>Other things:</p>
<p>Sharon, Lois & Bram
Moo, Baa, La La La
The Jolly Postman
The Wizard of Oz books. All of them (at least the Frank Baum ones).
Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Still a favorite book of both.
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
The Dark Is Rising series (they can still recite all the poems)
Animaniacs (the source of their sense of humor)
Legos
Madame Alexander dolls (daughter only! grandparents only!)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (son only)</p>
<p>My how time flies! My S just wrote a term paper on the Marxist theory of consumption and the Pokemon trading card game in Japan. I am dead serious.</p>
<p>Ertl tractors (oh, that’s an iowa childhood)</p>
<p>As a parent George Carlin as Mister Conductor completely freaked me out. On the other hand, the first time my boys saw a video of George Carlin doing stand-up THEY were completely freaked out. “Mom, you won’t believe what Mr. Conductor said!”</p>
<p>Barney
Lambchop
Plastic dinosaurs
Kitchen set
Any kind of art project
Lion King movie, toys, books, clothing
All of the Land Before Time movies
Disney Sing-a-long videos</p>
<p>Reading Rainbow
Barney, Mr. Rogers
Watching The Princess Bride and The Wizard of Oz
My son who is 23 just loved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when he was in K
Legos of course!</p>
