The 80’s Live On

The 80’s Live On

by MichelleMcHatton

One cool thing about being a parent of a “tween” is that I’m once again living my own “tween/teenhood” through my daughter Melanie.  Thanks mainly to YouTube and Netflix, things that were once old are new again and 80’s pop culture is still alive and well in my household.

A few years ago my daughter was first exposed to the TV show “Full House” via re-runs on Nickelodeon.  She couldn’t believe it when I told her that John Stamos started out playing a guy named “Blackie” on “General Hospital” and that Bob Saget was the first host of “America’s Funniest Videos”.  So when “Fuller House” appeared on Netflix, it was a no-brainer that she would be watching it.

I viewed an episode with her where DJ, Stephanie and Kimmy have a girls’ night out at a club.  While Stephanie sings a duet of “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” with Macy Gray, DJ and Kimmy do the “lift” part of the famous dance scene.

“Johnny and Baby did it much better”.

“Who?”  My daughter asked.

I then explained that the song and dance were from the movie “Dirty Dancing” and that she wouldn’t be able to see the film until she was 15.  But she loves the song “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life”.

Having OnDemand TV has allowed my daughter to see her fill of older kid-friendly movies.  Thanks to the mediocre movie “Daddy Day Care” and a frequently seen television commercial, my daughter’s favorite song for a while last year was Katrina and the Waves’ “Walking On Sunshine”.  Ugh.  I didn’t even like this song the first time around.

My daughter also has a fascination with Weird Al Yanchovich and some of the parodies he’s created from popular 80’s songs.  “Eat It”, “Girls Just Want To Have Lunch” and “Like a Surgeon” are her favorites.

Aside from “Full House” we can’t leave out many of the other TV shows and movies my daughter has discovered and come to love.  She recently discovered a cartoon on YouTube that I vaguely remember seeing myself in the 80’s.  It’s called “Just Say No” and it opens with an introduction from George and Barbara Bush, which certainly dates us.  The first time Melanie showed me the video with the intro just so happened to be the day after Super Bowl LI, the very one where George and Barbara were carted out on to the field for the coin toss.  I pointed this out to my daughter and asked her if she recognized them.  Of course she said no.  Anyway, the cartoon features Garfield, Alf, Disney characters, Looney Tunes characters, and the Smurfs and as the title says, it’s about just saying no to drugs.

We recently exposed her to “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, she loves watching “Uncle Buck” and she’s become obsessed with Donger from “Sixteen Candles”.  Over the years my daughter’s gone through her attachment phases of various cartoon characters.  She’s been in love with everything from Betty Boop and Felix The Cat to the Looney Tunes and The Flintstones.  Her latest fascination is with the Muppets.  Not so much with The Muppet Show but with all the movies.  In fact, she has discovered Muppet movies I never knew there were.  Thanks to “Muppets From Space” she now knows and loves the Kool & The Gang song “Celebration”.  She’s even discovered reruns of “The Jim Henson Hour” on YouTube.  I never knew there was such a show.  Most recently she’s discovered “The Fraggles” and “Dinosaurs”, neither of which I watched when I was a kid.

So the 80’s live on in our household, at least for now.  I’m enjoying it while I can because who knows how long it will last.

Unless It Happens To Me

Unless It Happens To Me

by MichelleMcHatton

For now it appears the Affordable Care Act remains in place.

Although I’m happy with the results, along with millions of other Americans, I do understand there are people out there, for whatever reason, who really aren’t pleased that the GOP’s plan to repeal and replace the ACA failed.  I’d say I’m sorry to them but I’m not sorry.  Because I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want affordable insurance.  Would you rather have unaffordable insurance or no insurance at all?

All I heard were people (mainly 20 and 30-somethings, mostly single people) complaining about how high their premiums were under the ACA.  Then I had to laugh and tell them that if they thought their premiums were high now, they should wait until the GOP’s plan passed.  Then they would know high premiums.

“But why should I be forced to have health insurance?”

That is the most ignorant question anyone can ask.  Why wouldn’t you want it?  Are you never planning on getting sick?  Are you never planning on having a family?  Are you never planning on getting old?

It’s like asking why you need auto insurance because you’re a great driver and you only go two miles down the street each day and nobody hits your car, etc. etc.

To these people I say:  Look up the definition of insurance.  Insurance is something in place for the “what ifs” of life.  We never want to use our auto, home or health insurance.  But if we must use it, it’s a nice security blanket to have.  Don’t even get me started on life insurance, which, in my opinion, is the most underrated form of insurance, yet is probably the most important.

I want to share my story, which is one of many stories I shared with various members of the Senate regarding why keeping the ACA was important to me.

When our daughter was nine years old she was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome.  Asperger’s is a form of autism.  A lot of my daughter’s issues stemmed around various levels of anxiety and behavioral issues.  We had many issues with her attending school.  Long story short, it was suggested we try to get ABA services for her.  Easier said than done, especially when the insurance I have through my employer does not cover ABA services.  And because it’s private insurance, the Massachusetts mandate does not apply.  Thankfully a therapist we were seeing at the time told me to apply for Mass Health.  Mass Health is the combination of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.  With Mass Health we could now seek ABA therapy.  Although we had an in-take with a program and were set to start ABA therapy, they then turned around and said they didn’t have anyone to come out during the hours that we needed (which was before school).  So, it was back to the drawing board.

We were able to do therapy for a while with a great in-home clinician.  We then did a six-month stint at the Center For Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders (CANDO) Clinic at UMass.  There our daughter obtained speech and physical therapy, as well as neuropsychological assessments and evaluations.  Without Mass Health, we would’ve gone in the poor house from all these treatments.  And that’s not mentioning her medications.  Our daughter’s only twelve and although she’s learned how to better manage her feelings and behaviors over the years, she still has a long way to go.

That’s just one of my family’s stories I shared with the Senate.

Considering all that has happened pertaining to America’s health care–the years and years of the GOP wanting to do away with the ACA, the hiding behind closed doors, the countless times they dragged it out, only to beat it up and kill it again–I think a lot of people should reconsider their thoughts about health coverage and what it means to them.  We can’t keep thinking that unless it happens to me, it’s somebody else’s problem because it could very well be your problem before you know it.