My Duty

So the kids are on a new movie kick: Mulan 2. They saw it on The Disney Channel one day and Myla talked about it non-stop. I got it from Netflix and we've had it about a month. We've watched it probably 40 times. You think I'm kidding.


Well, I've started realizing that we've watched a movie way too much when the kids start quoting the movie in their every day conversation. The basic message of the film is: My duty is to my heart. Basically Mulan and company have a mission to fulfill: to deliver the princesses to be married to men they don't know in another country in order to align the countries. Well, Mulan doesn't like it...or her heart doesn't like it. She (and the princesses) say several times throughout the movie that their duty is to their heart. It's a message that, while it sounds pretty, also presents problems. And this is one way how:

Yesterday Cade kept asking to go outside and play. It's a rule in our house that we don't play outside on Sundays and Kevin explained to Cade that Sunday is our reverent day. We can play outside every other day of the week. Cade responds, "Dad, my duty is to my heart and my heart tells me it's okay to play outside. I have to follow my heart." When Kevin told me this we busted up laughing. It was cute, and pretty clever.

After today I've decided it's not so cute anymore. Now everytime we ask him to do something he doesn't want to do (ie. pick up toys, take his plate to the sink, have quiet time) he says that his duty is to his heart and his heart tells him no. I did not see this one coming.

So I've decided that my duty is to send Mulan 2 back to Netflix and put some stricter limits on TV time. And my heart is okay with that.