That Will Teach You

This story is related to yesterday's post regarding the sleep wars and Hubbie being out of town. There is nothing that qualifies me more for geek status than my weakness for sci-fi. When LittleBird was born, Spike TV had daily Star Trek Voyager episodes. For a new mom with a hard-to-please infant, it was a welcome respite to the trials of motherhood.

All through our days in Tahoe, LittleBird got her Janeway fix, and even talked about her in her sleep. I was proud, Hubbie kept his mouth shut.

Since our move last year, the kids have not really seen any Trek-related content. Until this week. With Hubbie gone, I sat down with LittleBird on the couch and watched the pilot episode. Since then, I have had the most bizarre and random conversations. Her frame of reference from a year ago is gone. Questions like Why are they trying to get to earth? Why did that rock fall on him? Which one is the alien? (Pick one, honey).

I feel like a nutjob trying to explain terms like temporal flux and warp core. My kid is not the kind to shut up and watch, and I am not the kind of parent to tell her to do so. That being said, she has mostly been impressed that Janeway's hair got messed up, and she fixed it all the while taking care of the ship.

Tonight, Hubbie called to say goodnight. I had not thought that watching the tail-end of two episodes of Voyager had made any kind of impression on my soon-to-be three year-old son. However, he took my phone and proceeded to tell his pappa about "Janeway" and "the other" on the "planet" but then "the other" went to the "other" and um, they "went back on the ship" and "it was very sad".

I could hear my husband blinking on the other end of the line.

When I got the phone back, I started to explain when Hubbie said he'd heard the Janeway part and had kind of pieced things together. My response? You are are out of town, and I am turning your children into Trek nerds. Serves you right.

At least he had the sense of humor to agree.