Life according to Scooby

Scooby Doo was always one of my favorite cartoons, so when the boys-especially Cooper-became interested in watching those meddling kids in the Mystery Machine, I was thrilled. They share a love for Tom and Jerry with their dad (or as they call it, “Cat and Mouse”), but for me, it was always Scooby.

Now days, the show isn’t one of the regularly scheduled programs on the modern kids’ channels. We have to catch it on Boomerang, the classic cartoon network, or TV Land, another hot spot for old-timers-something I’ve evidently become over night. So sometimes I’ll find myself scrolling through the TV guide to find a cartoon about a bunch of teenagers who make nonstop road trips in a 1968 hippy-style Chevy van that never seems to run out of gas. The things we do for our kids.

It’s funny to think of it now, but one of Cooper’s nicknames from early on was Scooby. From Cooper to Scooper to Scooby, it was just the natural rhyme and rhythm of the name game you play with your little ones before they learn to walk or talk or talk back.

As I stood at the sink on Tuesday with my hands in the soapy water, wondering just what I’d write about this week, my now not-so-little ones were enjoying a creative lunch I’d concocted from the few healthy ingredients I could find in the kitchen: a quarter pound of hamburger, a stalk of broccoli and a box of Velveeta cheese. De-lish.

As I took to my task, Brisco turned around from his chair at the table and said, “Mom, did you know Scooby Doo had a mom and a dad?”

Well, I must say, I have contemplated many odd and interesting things in my few short years as a parent, but the paternity of one “Scooby Doo” has never crossed my mind. But I’ve learned just to go with these little-boy moments of insight into life and ponder right along with them the world’s bigger questions. So I simply replied, “Really? Yes, he did have a mom and a dad, didn’t he?” So then he added, “Yeah, and Shaggy had a mom and a dad too.”

I decided to push the idea further, “And what about the rest of them?”

Suddenly, Cooper’s thought process took over the conversation. “Well, you see,” he explained all grown up and to the point, “Daphne is the mom,” and he licked the Ranch dressing from his spoon.

And to this I responded, “Really? Are you sure?”

“Yes,” he said as he took a bite of his cheese-covered concoction. Then he added, “And Freddy is the dad.”

I smiled a little at the thought that a four-year old might be so capable of reading between the lines. It wasn’t a conversation I’d seen coming, but I was intrigued. I found that I wanted more information about their new take on this old show.

“Hmm. Well, why is Freddy the dad? What does that mean?” I thought maybe it was because he’s the one always driving the van. But it seems that has little to do with it. “It means he cooks,” Cooper said as he gulped down his milk.

I was torn as to how this might reflect the roles in our home. Dad=cooking because he has seen his daddy cook? Or dad=cooking because he would rather his daddy cook? I wasn’t sure what to think of this apparent role reversal of his. It is good for the kid to see a man in the kitchen, yes? But then just where is it that he sees his mother?

So I decided that before I got too worried about the implications of his statement, I would probe a little further. “Ok, so what about Velma?” I questioned. “What does she do?”

And to this my little genius replied, “She’s the one with all the good ideas.” Ahh. Now that’s more like it.

As the boys finished their lunch, a meal made of nothing but three ingredients and a good idea, I thought about how five minutes of chit-chat and a 40 year old cartoon could be so entertaining and yet so insightful. I suppose it’s a kind of irony that the roles in our family could be so simplified and likened to the main characters of a old-time cartoon.

I knew there was a reason I continued to love old Scoob all these years. I believe I could get used to this version of reality. Dad in the kitchen. “Velma”, blissfully pondering all of her wonderful ideas. Life according to Scooby. “Zoinks!”

And that’s All in a day’s work!