Here's Joe: 

Often I hear friends commenting on a previous episode of Dancing With the Stars, or co-workers discussing Law and Order or restaurant patrons reliving their favorite Two and a Half Men scene. Most of those conversations scarely resonate with me, however.

The truth is that beyond sports programs, I don’t watch much television _ unless I’m seated before the tube alongside my three-year-old daughter, Onalenna.

My TV show conversations, therefore, are a bit different.

"Donald Duck gets on my nerves," I told my wife Mpho recently after watching an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. "I don’t know who’s more obnoxious _ him or B.J. from Barney."

My wife stared at me incredulously.

"I also don’t know why it matters to me."

"That I can agree with," she replied.

But it does matter, and for me, that’s what it means to be an adult immersed in a toddler’s world. You can be a casual, unattached observer for only so long. Ultimately, a storyline or character grabs your attention, and you respond as you would while watching grown-up shows. To me, Donald Duck is obnoxious in the same vain that Archie Bunker was narrow minded, Kojak was cool and Homer Simpson is, well, obnoxious.

I didn’t always see it that way. When my now 12-year-old daughter Nyaniso was a preschooler, I took her to the movies, and when friends asked me what I thought of the film, I replied, "She watched it; I sat through it."

That changed when we watched such films as Monsters Inc., or TV shows such as Arthur. I saw the detail the creators put into ensuring that the stories were riveting to young eyes, that the characters were more than just nice and cuddly or inherently evil

Some of what I see is delighfully colorful and creative. Some of it is hopelessly boring. None of it is intended for me, but I'm not embarrassed to say that it often makes for interesting viewing.

And besides, what matters most is that Onalenna enjoys having me watch her favorite program with her.

Now, if I could only get her to warm up to SportsCenter.