MOVIE: Mary Poppins – Making Time for Playtime

by Randall Allen Dunn

 

The other night at dinner, Nicki wondered if I’m spending more time on writing than I need to, because I’m not spending much time with her and the kids.

Abby immediately piped in. “You’re always working, and you never have time to play with me,” she said. She put up a hand, trying to look understanding, though it felt more like she was patting me on the head. “Now I knooow that you have to do lots of work, and I knooow writing is veeery important … To you.”

It was funny and sad at the same time. Sad because I know it’s true. Over the last two months, Abby has asked me to play with her several times, and I usually tell her I have work to do.

Which is also true. With creating lessons for teaching 6 writing classes a month, my life is busier than it’s ever been. Once I complete all of my reading and researching, I still need to learn how to format e-books for publishing, update the Character Entertainment website, and finally get back to writing new stories again.

But I don’t want to lose the short time I have with my kids. I don’t want to discover one day that twenty years of their lives have flown by, and the only thing I built during my time with them was my own career.

In the film, “Mary Poppins”, Mr. Banks (David Tomlinson) seeks a nanny to look after his children, whose antics have chased away every previous nanny his wife hired. Taking matters into his own hands, he determines to find a nanny that can keep Jane (Karen Dotrice) and Michael (Matthew Garber) in line. The children apologize for their misbehavior, and offer their own suggestions for an advertisement. They want a nanny who is kind and pretty, and ready to sing songs and play games with them. In other words, someone happy and fun!

But the last thing Mr. Banks wants is a “fun” nanny. He tears up their ludicrous “advertisement” and tosses it in his fireplace. But after he turns away, the torn pieces float up the chimney.

A nanny soon shows up on his doorstep, descending gracefully from the clouds as she holds onto an umbrella. A strong wind has just blown away every other applicant, leaving the umbrella-wielding Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews) as the only possible choice. She presents Mr. Banks with the children’s ad, its pieces now fully restored, and reads from it to provide her qualifications. She takes the job and entertains the children with songs, games and outings to the park, including a magical trip into a chalkboard drawing to visit a beautiful countryside populated with animated carousel horses and dinner-serving penguins. The children have more fun with Mary Poppins and her friend, Bert (Dick Van Dyke), than they’ve ever had with anyone!

But they still miss their father.

When Mr. Banks tries to teach the children responsibility by urging Michael to deposit his money into a savings account, the father’s greedy boss (also Dick Van Dyke) frightens the children so much that they run off. Their antics create a panic at the bank that leads to the shaming and firing of Mr. Banks.

At which point, he realizes that his career wasn’t all that important after all. What good was it to chase after his career and to maintain a proper image if it cost him his own children?

For the first time since his childhood, Mr. Banks learns to laugh and play again, and takes his children out to fly kites together. And as Mrs. Banks (Glynis Johns) decides to limit her time spent on political activities, they all decide that they don’t really need a nanny anymore.

Because they have each other.

When our lives get busy, it’s easy to let our busy-ness crowd out time with our kids. A mountain of tasks piles on top of another mountain, until it’s all we can see.

But if I focus only on the mountain, I’ll miss the times I have with my kids for the few short years they’re living at home – times I can never get back once they’re gone.

When I called Nicki from work yesterday, I asked to talk to Abby, who was playing a computer game. On the phone, she gave short answers to all my questions about her day. She finally explained, “I’m having trouble because I’m talking on the phone and I’m playing a game. It’s kind of hard.”

I understood, and we cut our call short. I was disappointed, having really wanted to just talk for a couple of minutes.

And I realized she was doing the same thing I had been doing. As that endless “Cat’s in the Cradle” song started droning in my mind, I considered what a small thing this was. I didn’t expect her to stop her game so we could talk. But as she grows older, video games will be replaced with sports and parties and other activities, and she won’t have any time to spend with me, the same way I didn’t have time to spend with her. Not because she didn’t want to talk to me.

She would simply be busy.

This morning, I hugged Abby and we laughed and played together. Then I tried to apologize for not spending more time with her lately, to tell her it was wrong and I was sorry. But she was too busy goofing around, hanging sideways from my arms and making silly faces. She didn’t need any apology or explanation. She just needed me to be there.

And I’ve decided I will be.

 

Find more reviews of “Mary Poppins” at amazon.com!