Dear Lord, don’t let my children be philistines.

What, oh what, did I ever do to deserve a child who rushes to turn off the DVD player while the end credits are still rolling?

I first noticed this problem a few days ago. My eldest son used to hop with joy when the VeggieTales video came to its end and some techno-mix thingy began playing over the closing credits. But a few days ago, when the end credits began, my boy didn’t have time to start his usual hopping, because his sister zipped right over to the PlayStation and turned the machine off.

And then, today, she did it again, when the first episode on one of our Mister Rogers discs came to an end and the credits began to roll. This time, however, my daughter immediately regretted what she had done, because she had wanted to watch the second episode on that disc, too. So I cued it up for her.

I sometimes wonder if I’m being a bad parent just because I let the kids watch TV at all. But episodes like these make me think I’m failing to bring these children up properly in other ways.