Please...someone push REWIND...

When John and I married, his parents gave us a very high-tech gift - a huge honkin' television with a VHS player built right in.  Holy cow...a VCR!!  Then, as any newly married and very poor couple would do - we began our VHS tape collection...and that collection had babies...and then THEY had babies AND THEN - WE HAD BABIES!

We all know what that means....Barney tapes....Thomas the Tank Engine...Arthur...Richard Scarry...oh, the many days we popped in tapes.  Whoa....are you judging me?  Are you going to tell me about how kids will be complete slobbering drooling monkeys if they watch TV or Barney tapes?  Seriously?  Well....poop.


Okay - confession - we watched a lot of dang Barney.  It saved my life during John's very first deployment.  I suppose I will take a look at Andrew's report card next week and get back to you about the "drooling monkeys" thing......

Andrew is 15...he really doesn't like Barney anymore...and guess who still has the tapes?  Me...that's who.  Me me me me me me...what the heck am I DOING with these?  How many times have they moved with us...and only gotten unpacked and shoved in a drawer?  HOW MANY?  Oh, gosh...sorry...I freaked out for a second.  I'll tell you this....they have gone unwatched for a while....so I piled them up and stared at them.

I stared for about 3 days.  The kids kept knocking them over...I piled them back up and one day while they were at school...I decided to say "goodbye" to my kids being little enough to clap while watching Barney....and to ask to watch Thomas the Tank Engine after their afternoon nap (which would be awkward because they are in school in the afternoon...)....I cried because for just a few days I longed for a rewind button.  Just reverse all of the years and PLEASE let me go back to sleepy babies and snuggly pajamas and little teeth that had to be brushed by me.  But, after 3 days of watching them tumble over in the floor...I knew it was time.  

I called and asked people if they wanted them...could they use them?....do they even KNOW what a VHS tape is?  And...the answer was 100%...."We can't use them".  

Mom:  If you are reading this...please stop.  You will hate the next part.

I decided to look at every tape...remember the sweet times with LITTLE kids...and put them lovingly in the recycling.  

HOLY COW...this tape has such BAD acting...but my kids LOVED it!  I mean - they BEGGED for it.  AND..when Andrew broke his femur when he was 4...he watched it to get through the horrible leg cramps that followed.  I can almost FEEL those days of watching this...and helping him get through the pain.

Andrew...this was the first tape I bought just for you.  You watched it and watched it and watched it...it warbles now.  I loved it that you loved Thomas...he is such a "useful engine" and so are you!

I won't make you go through everyone...but I will say this:  When I had finished crying and putting them in the recycling...I called my husband and said, "I JUST GOT RID OF ALL MY VHS TAPES!!!  WAAAAAAAAA!!!!  THE KIDS ARE GROWING UP!!!"...and he said, "Ask the kids which ones were their favorites and go order the DVD?"

I love that man...he knew he would be clobbered if he had said, "Ummm..can I call you back?"  He may not LONG to rewind our lives to the days of diapers and temper tantrums - but he understands how hard it is to say "goodbye".

Looking back...I think it would have been MUCH easier to purge those tapes if I had watched an episode of "Hoarders"...but, as it all turned out....I had a little moment with some plastic VHS tapes and realized there is no rewind button.  I just need to enjoy the moments and memories we are making now...and try not to buy any more things that can possibly be stacked into 5 foot tall towers!  

Nite nite Richard Scarry....I'll see you another day when I have grand babies.  Thanks for the memories!