Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Pit fighting and Porn

I've mentioned it before. Our kids and electrical equipment have not done well together since our arrival home nearly 3 months ago. It didn't take long to figure out that Joshua has a bad habit of NOT asking questions when he doesn't know how something works, and likes to hit "yes" to any questions on remotes and computers.
I have many examples to back this up... our Ethiopia pictures that were deleted on accident, the DVR that is full of Corey in the House, America's top model and some biker show, and my computer that we had to put a password on after a complete recovery effort was made to save it. I mention these things not to place blame because they are as much my fault as his as I didn't lay down the rules very well from the beginning, but these examples are meant to lay the groundwork for the story of today. Because Josh is the one who has scheduled timers on our DVR to tape everything under the sun, and he is the one who ALWAYS has the remote in his hand, he is winning the prize for this one because when we asked who did it, we got the usual: "What? I don't understand."
Jeff opened the DISH bill, which is usually the same amount every month. This month, however, was a different story.
While leaving church tonight, Jeff starts opening the mail. We're still in the parking lot, and Jeff turns to me and says...
"Did you order $58 in pay per view movies?"
"NO, what were they?"
"Something from the Ecstasy channel, the Fantasy channel and for only $34.95 Yamma Ultimate Pit Fitting."
"NO, if I'd ordered the pit fighting, I would have watched it."

So now, once again, we are having yet ANOTHER teaching lesson about the remote, the TV in general and not hitting buttons if you don't know what you're doing. Not to mention that Jeff and I are one by one, pain stakingly putting parental locks on all the channels we don't want the kids to have any kind of access to. This has never been an issue before, and it's making me a little crazy. I hope that with repeated teaching lessons and reinforcement, Josh will learn what he is allowed to do with the remote and what he's not allowed to do with the remote.

And I am praying that he only watched the pit fighing and not the porn. I'm pretty sure with 6 kids sharing the TV in the basement, we would have heard them fighting about what they were watching. That's the usual.

In the meantime, Jeff is on the phone with the DISH people trying to convince them that we did not order any porn or pit fitting. It will be interesting to hear his defense on this one...

5 comments:

Jeanie said...

If it wasn't so aggravating, it would be funny.

ellerbee eight said...

Yes, it would be funny if it were happening to someone else. (Giggle, snort, happy face)

ellerbee eight said...

Addendum to this entry: Just for your information: No you cannot recoup losses even if it's your 11 year old son from a different country who orders the porn and pit fighting. That is evidently "a parenting issue" according to DISH network. Isn't that nice? I know a kid who is going to be earning some chore money this month. Anybody need help with anything around the yard?

Linda said...

Have him talk to his Papa, I'm sure he can find something, or needs help with something.

Laurel said...

Oh ... we are walking that walk right with you. We've been home 6 weeks, with 3 kids from Ghana. And, our 12 year old boys loves the, "I don't understand." line. Sorry ... doesn't work here ... Ghana is an English speaking, and we don't need translators. :)

Glad we don't have DISH network. Hoping our son doesn't figure out the international access code to phone his older brothers in Ghana. Yikes!

Blessings to you and yours!

Laurel
mama of 13