Pink Elephants on Parade!

Yesterday afternoon my eldest kid spent most of the afternoon legged on the couch feeling sorry for himself. His ear infection wasn't exactly kicking his butt, but the little guy was definitely feeling out of sorts.

So what better way to cheer him up than a Disney flick - and seeing as though the wee fella wanted Mommy sitting right beside him, I thought a bit of Dumbo (Mommy's favourite) was in order!

When I was a little kid I used to suffer from severe bouts of tonsilitis, finally culminating in the removal of the vulnerable blighters at age 12. That's not a particularly fond memory, but years before the odeous op', I remember staying home from school with the nasty virus, and watching Dumbo over and over.

I vividly remember pausing the VHS, so I could draw Mrs Jumbo snuggling with little baby Dumbo. So I was a bit older than my 2 year old. Such nostalgia - and a strange sense of time shifting - was conjured up, laying with my sick kid, stroking his forehead (like my Mum used to do with me), while he snuggled on the couch under his duvet.

So it was high odds that slinging poor Mommy Elephant in the clink would have this nostalgia ridden pregnant Mommy sobbing bucket loads. And 'Baby Mine' just about undid me! I'd always cried at the scene, but watching it now, as a Mother, is more heart wrenching than ever.

My very understanding little man, was the one stroking my head for a moment, asking with 2 year old concern, "OK, Mommy?". It's a good job I know how to laugh at myself, and so my wee one, laughed too, admonishing me "Silly Mommy!"

But as much as I used to love Disney's emotional masterpiece, I remember hating - with a passion - those disturbingly surreal pink elephants. In fact, I always had the remote ready to fast forward past the trippy musical break from reality.

Not my boy though. In fact, much to Mommy's dismay, our kid absolutely loves those freaky pink elephants. He had me replay that one blasted scene 15 times or more (easily done by DVD) but what torture for a pink elephant hating Mother!


Like a broken record, he's stuck on the "What'll I do? What'll I do?" bit of the song, and since his pink elephant marathon yesterday, all he wants is for Mommy to sing it for him. So here I am, nearly 3 decades on, still being haunted by Pink Elephants on Parade.


You have to hand it to Walt Disney!