Niece Talking w/ You

Talking to my almost-5-year-old niece Mia last week, I was glad to know that she knew the difference between cartoon violence and real violence. Sure, she doesn't know how to read yet, but as life lessons go, this was a big leap foward.

The topic was The Tom & Jerry Show. She knew that any demise met by Tom the cat would mostly prove fatal to real cats. How'd she know? She told me she saw a cat get run over by a car outside her home, and even added detail about how the eyes popped out. I asked her if she cried or if it scared her, and she said no. (Thanks, television's power of desensitizing the youth.)

And you can tell she's been watching a lot of TV. She knows The Justice League. Her familiarity with Spider-Man is from the movies and not the comics. Last Christmas her gift of choice was Polly Pocket.