As might be obvious to those who have seen Rose's new socks (or as we call them, Spocks), we have introduced the kids to Star Trek. We started with the original, but no, we are not watching every one in order. Some of them are darn right dreadful. John is curating for us. So far, we've gotten through old Trek and have just started season 4 of Next Generation.

It's been fantastic family time. We have strict rules about screen time in our family, which aren't followed particularly well, but we try. But, most of the kids' t.v. watching (an hour every other day) happens in their own little spaces. We watch Star Trek several times a week, and we watch it together. We also encourage questions. John and I don't love having to break the fictive dream every few minutes to explain that we don't know who the Borg are yet, we'll all just have to wait and see, but it eases the kids' stress and the questions have dropped dramatically as they have learned the characters and the world.

As I'm sure you all know, Star Trek combines adventure and action with deep questions about what does it mean to be human and socio-political commentary. I find some of the old ones disturbingly sexist--the episode where the planet gives them their greatest wishes and all the women completely lose their Star Fleet training and start simpering and fawning was a particularly egregious example, but I find Wesley much less annoying than the first time around (one of the questions on our wedding rehearsal picnic bingo card was "Who is Debby's least favorite Star Trek character). And my love for Picard and Guinan grows ever stronger.

Now, when we are in the kitchen and Rose says, "I'm going to heat up the pizza." And I say, "Make it so," she and David laugh with me.