Unexpected Kindness / Unerwartete Freundlichkeit

We had a great conversation with Nikolas' teacher a few days ago. It started with a discussion of children and growing, and moved on to comparisons between American schools and Austrian schools (and what makes a 'good' school in different people's eyes), and then on to regional differences in Austria (the people in the state of Kärnten where Irene is from being far more open and friendly than people in Salzburg who tend to be cool and exclusive).

Ultimately the discussion turned to afternoon television for children. Here, Toggo TV is the main kids' channel. Most of the shows come from the US and are dubbed into German, although there are some shows from Iceland and Wales and England (also dubbed) thrown into the mix too. In the early mornings, the shows are all right up Nikolas' alley: Caillou, Bob the Builder, Winnie the Pooh, Thomas the Tank Engine, and so on. By the time afternoon rolls around, all the cartoons turn sinister with evil characters whose glowing eyes shoot sparks or darts or just evil looks. Afternoon TV is all American imports. Why are modern cartoons so bad?

Shortly after we arrive in Salzburg, we instituted a 'no afternoon TV' policy. We were bothered by the glowing eyes and excessive weaponry and bizarre (and violent) story lines that Nikolas didn't even really understand. By saying 'no afternoon TV', it's not that Nikolas isn't allowed to watch anything in the afternoon. It's just that he can't watch live programming. Nikolas doesn't watch a whole lot of TV as it is, but sometimes after a busy day, a little down time on the couch watching TV in the afternoon is a nice thing to do. We have plenty of DVDs, both in English and German, but a full length feature film is usually more than Nikolas needs or wants, and he's tiring of the same old Elmo songs and dances that he's seen a thousand times.

So we shared all this with Irene whose grandson, Lucas, is in Nikolas' class (although he is 6 and they have little to do with each other), and she understood exactly what we meant. "Afternoon television is atrocious!" she said. "My daughter (Lucas' mother) doesn't let him watch it either. She records morning shows for him to watch later if he wants to."

Soon after that the conversation wound down, and we went on our way. Imagine our surprise when we arrived at school, and Irene had a series of DVDs for us that her daughter had burned from her recordings: Micky Maus Wunderhaus (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse), Meine Freunde Tigger und Puuh (My Friends Tigger and Pooh), Feuerwehrmannn Sam (Fireman Sam, a British show), and Coco, Der Neugierige Affe (Curious George - Why did they rename him Coco?! What's wrong with Georg?)

It was such a great unexpected kindness from a mother we don't even know, and the DVDs mean the world to Nikolas.