Raising a Brat

I'm sure you have probably heard of or read or watched the famous brats above. Incase you don't, well, they are Bart Simpson, Shin Chan and Calvin. These are really creatively astounding brats. Entertaining and delighting to read or watch.

Of all 3, my favourite is the Stupendous Man (Calvin's alter ego). I started reading Calvin & Hobbes when I was in primary school. I'm impressed with Bill Watterson's (the creator) creativity and imaginations. Well, either that or he was merely putting his childhood into papers. Calvin is an imaginative six years old boy with a stuffed animal (Hobbes) as his best friend.

Number 2 favourite is Shin Chan. Created by Yoshito Usui, five years old Shin Chan tickles you with his unnatural behaviours, occassionally weird and inappropriate use of languages. The translated into Malay language comic books used to accompany me on my bus trips back to Malacca when I was in college (years and years ago)

Well, not that I less favour Bart from the rest. Just that I can only catch simpsons on TV and viewing time tends to clash with my Cantonese soap operas. Before Astro was introduced in Malaysia, I could still afford to change channel just to catch an episode of Simpsons. But with Astro, and with so many more interesting channels, I lost touch alittle with Bart. In spite of that, Bart is still one of my favourites.

Now, what's with all these cartoon brats? Well, as much as I enjoyed watching / reading them, but I don't hope to see Ivan behaving like them. I wouldn't mind if he is as imaginative as Calvin, as charming as Shin Chan and as cool as Bart. Wow .. perfect kid !

However, I couldn't and wouldn't want to imagine him to eat dinner just because I lied to him that I cooked Monkey Brains instead of normal meal and irks everyone else on the dinner table. Or neither would I want a 6 years old Ivan asking for a puff. Check out this comic strip and this as well. I will be very embarassed if Ivan do wolf whistle to some pretty chics that passes by or with him taking his pants off just to show off his smooth and fair butts. And I will probably question God 'why me' for 3 times atleast, if Ivan ever bombs up the gents or skates around town with a grenade in his pocket.

Nevertheless, with The Simpsons movie to be shown in town, I'm planning to get the movie tickets to watch with my sweetie pie, Jeffrey. As for Ivan, I forbid him from viewing until he reaches puberty. Hahaha ... which is a long way to go !