The One Where We Watched Friends

Over the holidays my little boy and I spent Christmas vacation watching my Friends DVD. My boy had seen the TV show before, as a younger child, all of 4 years (he's now 8), which means he couldn't remember a lot of it back then, it is not exactly a show that would hold a 4-year old's interest. So, anyway...he wanted to start from the beginning. In the course of our viewing, my boy feeds me his observations. He notices how much a competitive person Monica is; or how very funny Chandler is ("He says the funniest things," my boy would tell me.); or how different Phoebe looked from the earlier years.

I could tell my boy was really into the show and was starting to think like me when on one episode, he clicked the remote to pause the DVD and said: Mommy, when you boss me around, you're just like Monica. Of course, that was something I've known all along, I am a lot like her, but I find it amusing that my son would think the same thing. He also told me I'm as crazy as Phoebe.

When I asked him if I was as pretty as Rachel, the brat didn't say anything.

And then we played Phoebe's game (in the episode The One In Vegas Part 1, where Phoebe asked a series of questions and Joey would say the first thing that comes to his mind). I started with the basic :

Me: What do you love most, ice cream or chocolate?
S: Ice cream
Me: Who do you love most, mommy or daddy?
S: Mommy

and moved to Friends-related:

Me: Who is funnier, Chandler of Phoebe?
S: Chandler
Me: Who would you kiss, Monica or Rachel?
S: Rachel

I asked him why Rachel.

"She'd make a good girlfriend,"

my boy says.

Of course, when I asked him what his favorite show is, that isn't a cartoon or something he'd watch on Disney channel, I already know the answer.

After viewing, he went online and googled anything Friends related, and now knows more than the average Friends fan. If I dare say, my son is a lot like Ross that way. He's a geek, he'd google anything if he wants to get information. He's the kind of boy who keeps a list of pasta dishes and scientific names of plants (among other lists), just for the heck of it.

The drawback to watching Friends with an 8 year old is, every now and then I get questions like, "Mommy, what's a condom?" ... but I don't really mind it. It is better he learn this from me rather than from someone else and make-up all sorts of answers about it, right? Phoebe for one, wouldn't like that.

Friends
1994-2004
Network: NBC