Day off

After all this work and sudden exhaustion, it's a day off for Grit, which means setting no targets and no achievements, thinking as little as possible, and having nothing to show for it.

So today I shove a DVD in the machine. It is Jurassic Park.

First job is to get it, because we don't have it. Tiger, Squirrel and Shark are busting themselves to see it, having seen a 20 second clip of it on Channel 4's 100 greatest family films last night. But when we get to Tesco's DVD department down the road, they don't have a cheap DVD of Jurassic Park for £3. Oh no. It's the box set with all films and forty special features, sixteen of them probably Steven Spielberg wearing a hat. And it's £15. But there's no backing out now.

Then I see it's rated PG.

Now here's a moral dilemma. The last time Shark, Squirrel and Tiger got a five minute glimpse of anything outside of a U rating it was at Christmas two years ago after mummy Grit had fallen asleep on the sofa and forgotten to guard the TV. I got woken up with shrieks of 'scary! scary!' going off around me like mortar bombs and Squirrel diving behind the sofa.

But now we're in the big league. If it was a U certificate I'd wander off and do the laundry. But with a PG rating I feel duty bound to stay while the dinos go beserk. And this is a real growing up moment. It's too much for Squirrel who puts a blanket on her head 30 seconds after I press play. Tiger winds the tie belt of her dress over her eyes so it looks like her head's bandaged. Only Shark sits joyously through the whole thing pointing at the screen in glee when the T. Rex comes on. I manage a bit of it but can't take the tension of the frilled lizard about to eat the baddy in the jeep, so run off to hide in the kitchen on the pretext of needing a cup of tea.

Now it's over I decide it is a great achievement, watching Jurassic Park. We even watch the extra film about how it was made and the robotic monsters and computer images and everything. Then by evening I've decided on our next goal. Film Studies. I'm off to print out 100 greatest family films and we'll start working our way through them. And what a project this could be! Shark could make her own underwater animation sequence with modelling clay; Tiger can animate her illustrated animals using her massive computer skills, and Squirrel can film a costumed drama complete with hats and fairy wings.

See what a day off can do.