Month of Joy: Pop Culture by Tansy Rayner Roberts
So this is soppy, but something that brings me great joy year after year is sharing favourite pop culture, new and old, with my kids. I now have a 9-year-old and a nearly 14-year-old, and sharing stories or music or TV shows is one of the things that keeps us talking, spending time together, giving us something in common. It makes me happy. You can’t put a price on actually understanding what it is your teenager is flailing about, whether it be something you both hate-watched for pure rage (Paramount Heathers, I’m looking at you) or a beloved classic of modern television that has sparked some seriously intense conversations about relationships, mental illness and musical tastes (Crazy-Ex Girlfriend, we will miss you when you’re gone). While I’ve never quite managed to read enough of the web comic Gunnerkrigg Court to understand my teen’s ongoing love for the series, at least we have a mutual appreciation for Check! Please.
Month of Joy: Sharing Pop Culture by Tansy Rayner Roberts
Something that has brought me a great deal of joy over the years — but particularly in 2017, a year that has us grasping for crumbs of joy among the embers and the schrapnel — is sharing pop culture with my kids. My eldest turned 12 last January. It hit me that I remembered exactly what I was reading at 12 — Stephen King’s IT, for one, along with a whole bunch of other adult texts. So… my policy on reading matter, always fairly casual, meant that I removed all filters and left R to it. My policy on other media shifted a bit too, especially when I realised that 12 is an awesome age to experience teen media that didn’t come along until I was… well. Older than 12.
