A Monster. And a Pig

I am blessed with being parent to an 11 year old and to a 15 year old and whilst they’re usually little beacons of joy in my life, kids can be a bit … irritating at times, can’t they?

The 11 year old, for example, currently likes to respond to my questions in Japanese (it’s a Manga thing). And 15 year old believes that Marmite grows on trees.

But over the last year, they’ve both developed another irritating habit; they seem to find the words ‘Peppa Pig’ and ‘Shrek’ to be highly amusing. The 11 year old in particular, likes to do things like hijack my sodden-with-seriousness discourse in relation to global warming by demanding; “Who would you prefer to go on a date with, Mum? Peppa Pig? Or Shrek”. Or he’ll simply answer any question that I ask with “Peppa Pig – hahahaha!”

I genuinely don’t understand this. I’m trying to think of a similar touchstone from my own childhood, but I can’t. I’ve tried to say, “Look, I remember when you both were tiny and adored Peppa Pig. When you first discovered Shrek. But now… now you’re watching Peaky Blinders and Serial Killers of the USA and all of that. So whats the deal with the fuzzy childhood animation references?”

Okay, I’m aware of the fact that there exist some, erm…. youtube nasties that involve The Pig and Shrek – but I simply can’t understand what this massive Cult following is all about. So today, I asked them again. All serious-face, like. And whilst the 11 yr old just carried on sniggering away about Peppa and farting, the 15 year old finally let me in on the secret:

“Thing is, Mum – most of the Boomers are in denial about how crap they’ve made the world. And all they ever do is go on Facebook and look at photos of a time that never really existed. Ooh, there’s me in my pram and times were hard but we were happy la la la. And your generation are obsessed with your mortgages and with Brexit and climate change and most of all, with Boris Johnson and with Trump.”

“Okay….”

“Who are – let’s face it – A pig and a monster. Actually. So.… can’t you see ..? That my generation need our own bit of nostalgia to escape from all of the misery that you lot created? So … we just joke about our own pig and our own monster from our childhoods. But a nice pig and a nice monster. It’s what-do-you-call it… escapism. Yeah, we joke about a nice pig and a nice monster. Instead of ones doing their best to wreck the world. See?”

I see.

* Postscript – and of course they were challenged for expressing the sort of ageist sweeping statements that are currently doing the rounds. They were rigourously beaten about the head in a bout of discipline a la Boomer-nostalgia. Just to teach ’em a lesson. Well. It never did me no harm 😉