Thank You America's Funniest Home Videos!

We love America's Funniest Home Videos at our house. We try to watch it every week. I'm not sure why it's so funny when little kids fall off their bikes and hit their faces or get chased around by crazed animals but due to the show's success we aren't the only ones who think so.

Last week one of the clips was a High School health class watching a video of the birth of a baby. It didn't show the movie, just their reaction to it. They were horrified, screaming, and covering their faces. Actually, that's kind of how I felt after I watched the movies in our birthing class! My kids kind of wanted to laugh but didn't really get it.

So in the interest of openness, I decided I should explain a few things to Jenna and Abby. Mike wasn't home, but I filled him in and I figure he should be able to handle helping our ONE son through it while I deal with ALL the girls. While they were getting ready for bed and I was putting laundry away, I just casually started to tell them the nitty gritty about how a baby is born.

Reaction: Jenna started laughing hilariously. Abby started having a panic attack. She was saying, "Why are you telling us this?" while plugging her ears and crying. She couldn't breathe. I had to keep telling her to take deep breaths.

Mike walked down the hallway and with a smile said, "So it's going pretty well, huh?" I was getting pretty frustrated trying to reason with Abby and Mike swooped in to calm her down. That's usually how it goes, I do the dirty work then he saves the day. Jenna very maturely told me we could talk about it on our trip - referring to when we take our Passport 2 Purity get away.

So much for the grand visions of having heart to heart, meaningful dialogues with my girls, at least for now. I guess I learned that I better handle different personalities differently. But tell me, what is a good way to handle it? It is kind of weird and scary even after you've been through it 5 times!

This makes me a little anxious about my upcoming weekend "talk" with Jenna. I so want to be open with them! But I think my approach was off. Unfortunately using AFV as a springboard probably did not properly show God's creation and plan behind it all. God's plan is beautiful, not a horror show! So lesson learned, I will not use slapstick comedy shows to jump start very important conversations!