Miss Priss and Planet Earth

Have you seen the Planet Earth series? I think it was originally on the Science channel, but since I don’t get the Science channel (we have the 120 package so that we can have all of the movie channels instead of the 180 package with no movies), I’ve recorded a few of them off of Animal Planet.

I recorded one a while back about forests. It was very interesting (and beautifully done), and Miss Priss really liked watching it. There was a part where an ant died, so it was forever after that dubbed the show, “the one where the ant dies.” Hmmm.

So, I saw one that the info said was about Shallow Seas with humpback whales and dolphins, etc. I thought Miss Priss would really like this one, so I recorded it.

She thought the whales were great, and then it showed a reef with lots of fish and other plant life, etc. Then it showed some banded sea skates (I think that’s what they were called). Miss Priss immediately said, “Mommy! Mommy! I know what those are! Those are anacondas!” Thank you, Diego. She saw snakes in the water, so she put her knowledge together to get anacondas. I was impressed (and I did tell her what they really were).

We saw some dolphins and the whales, and then there were some really cute seals. In South Africa. And I had a bad feeling about where this was headed. The next thing they showed was the sharks. Oh, no. I thought about turning it off, but she had really enjoyed it up to this point, and I would have to explain why I was turning it off. And when she said that sharks are mean, the naturalist in me came out, and I had to explain to her that they aren’t mean, but that they have a bad reputation. They are a vital part of the food chain. During my food chain lecture, however, the shark proceeded to eat a seal. Miss Priss wasn’t exactly as horrified as I thought she would be. She was more curious about why the shark at the seal. I again commenced with the food chain lecture.

After the seals, it showed some cute little penguins. I knew where this was going as well. I don’t think it showed a brutal penguin attack, but it left no doubt that the seals eat the penguins, but it also showed a penguin escaping. Then, just when I was sure that my food chain lecture had gotten nowhere and I had probably traumatized my child with my parenting mistake of letting her see how brutal nature can be, she said, “So, the seals eat the penguins, and the sharks eat the seals.”

I guess she got it after all. And she also told me that it was okay for the shark to have 2 seals (it showed 2 attacks) so that he wouldn’t be hungry. So, now you know my daughter watches too much TV.