Creative Children are Delightful . . . and Creative Play is Very Messy

This weekend brought a lot of snow, a lot of playing in the snow, and a lot of shivering under blankets after becoming drenched in the snow. I suppose that’s why I thought it would be a good idea to introduce the kids to a Looney Tunes cartoon.

We try to avoid gun-related entertainment in our house, so they’ve only seen two such cartoons—“Baton Bunny,” in which Bugs Bunny is a conductor and things go haywire, and “One Froggy Evening,” in which a singing frog torments its finder. This weekend, it was time to go for “Rabbit of Saville.” In that cartoon, Bugs is chased by Elmer J. Fudd, the Hunter, and they stumble on the set for the opera Barber of Saville, and hilarity ensues.

We watched it three times—always with the proviso that we should recognize that we would never shoot a gun at another sentient being.

And what do our dear children decided to do after the viewing is over? Shave each other? Cut each other’s hair? Nope.

In one scene, Bugs suddenly dons a green turban, plays a recorder (or clarinet) and, like a snake charmer, urges an electric razor to rise from a basket and chase the irate Elmer all over the set.

That’s what they wanted to do. They found a piece of plastic . . . well, they badgered me until I found them an appropriate piece of plastic . . . that looked, roughly, like an electric razor; they tied a long series of strings (mostly shoelaces) together; they found a basket and a recorder-like instrument, and spent many hours charming it out of its basket and getting it to chase the other children over the house.

It was a riot.

I don’t even begrudge them the time it took me to track down my shoelaces and to re-lace my shoes this morning!

ds