On Watching Nature Documentaries With My Children

I’ve been watching the BBC Life series. It’s pretty accurate, too – life at the BBC is actually a lot like that.

The kids and I were watching one when my daughter asked me why that one frog from was climbing on another one’s back. And I think we had the talk.

I always pictured it would be a special moment, but instead it was more like me in a panic and a bit of an anticlimax, like years ago when my dad took me out for my “first” beer.

“Can I get away with just not talking? Does she understand? Am I a coward?”

Which is a strange coincidence, because all these years later, those were the things I was thinking.

Watching Life is difficult because although it’s a family activity, you keep seeing animals getting killed. My daughter covers her eyes gets sad but I explain that nature works that way. “Everything has to survive somehow and it gives life to some other animal so they can feed their own family. Now who wants more tofu?”

In the interest of fairness, this blog has to present both sides of the argument, so here’s a picture of a crocodile being killed by a hippo. Normally you see them sitting in a river waiting for a passing gazelle and I think its about time crocodiles got theirs in wildlife documentaries.

You’re welcome.