A Weird Case Of Deja Vu

School holidays are over for us and I’ve got to say it’s not a day too soon because my sanity is starting to fray.

It’s not the mess or the fights or the demands. It is, ironically enough, their choice of comedy. It started innocently enough – Master10 playing us a parodies Dark Lord Funk and Call Me Maybe on Youtube. I don’t think I’m giving too much away here when I say, despite the four million views, the later was dreadful.

Clearly Tracey thought so too, because before I had a chance to stop her she was trying to get him to watch something less grating and ended up saying something really stupid.

“Have you heard of Weird Al?” she said.

“Who’s he?” asked Master10, even as I spun, horrified, to face my wife.

Our eyes locked in much the same way the two comical side-kick bad guys look at each other at the end of a light-hearted action movie when they realise the hero has fired a missile that’s about to blow them to smithereens and they can’t do a single damn thing about it.

But still, bless her never-say-die attitude, Tracey tried.

“Never mind. He’s nobody. You wouldn’t be interested,” she blurted out.

But it was too late. Master10’s fingers were already tapping away on the keyboard.

Now I like a good parody, but once a year per song is more than enough for me. I smile, I move on.

Not so for Master24 when he was a kid. They could be termed the weird years, although more specifically they’re the Weird Al years. Master24 would play parodies over and over again, often trying to insist we watch them with him. I mean, I love Weird Al – I introduced Master24 to him – but seriously I’d rather have The Wiggles in my head (I’m specifically referring to their magnum opus, Big Red Car. Obviously).

And, not funnily enough, it turns out Master10 also likes to replay the clips, at full volume, over and over.

“Dad!” yelled Master10, as he worked his way through the classics again – Amish Paradise & Smells Like Nirvana & Word Crimes & Gump & White & Nerdy. His siblings were loving it too. “Dad, you’ve got to hear these!”

“I can,” I called back. And I could. From every room in the house. From under a pillow. With my hands clamped over my head.

So thankfully it’s back to school for our kids. That means, we’ve rather sensibly decided, no laptops or electronic pods or pads during the week and heavy restrictions on device time over the weekend. It’s for their own well-being and because we care about their academic progress.

But mainly because I genuinely think we’ve suffered enough.

I enjoyed this. Watched it twice. I’m done until 2018 now.

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“Raising a family on little more than laughs.”