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"I tried to resist the pull of American Idol as long as I could. I didn&amp;#039;t want my family to get wrapped up in who will make it big and who will sing their last song before millions of viewers while half the girls and at least one boy contestant sob quietly nearby. I didn&amp;#039;t want to commit to the hours and hours of TV programming for America&amp;#039;s number one show, but my son made me do it. And yet, I&amp;#039;m glad he did. For now, anyhow. Before Season 7 of American Idol took hold in my house, I usually spent my evenings watching re-runs of CSI or The Colbert Report. Whenever my third grader came by in his p.j.&amp;#039;s to curl up with me on the couch, I&amp;#039;d frantically flip to the Weather Channel and send him back upstairs, warning, &amp;quot;You can&amp;#039;t watch my show. It&amp;#039;s TV-14.&amp;quot; In my house, 8 p.m. hasn&amp;#039;t been Family Hour, when the kids and parents gather to watch TV together. Rather it&amp;#039;s been my boys upstairs, reading or harassing each other, and me downstairs, yelling, &amp;quot;Cut it out!&amp;quot; at them, while hoping the CSI guys could nab the pedophile this time.  I simply wasn&amp;#039;t ready for American Idol. I didn&amp;#039;t want my son to get caught up in the excitement and subsequent disappointment when his favorite contestant got voted off. We had enough crushing defeat during this year&amp;#039;s third grade basketball season, thank you very much. But then we stumbled upon an episode of American Idol, and a few days later, we watched another. My son realized quickly that perhaps &amp;quot;that Simon guy&amp;quot; isn&amp;#039;t so nice. Then he said things like, &amp;quot;I think she picked the wrong song&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;That guy&amp;#039;s gonna make it to the finals.&amp;quot; It was clear that we were slowly getting hooked. Meanwhile, my son was getting inspired. Last week, he held his own singing contest on the playground at school. In his &amp;quot;Junior Idol,&amp;quot; a few kids competed, singing &amp;quot;Jingle Bells,&amp;quot; largely because they know all the lyrics. But then my boy put what he had learned on American Idol to work for him. He sang two tunes that wowed the judges, a bunch of nine-year-olds raised on Radio Disney: &amp;quot;New York, New York&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Summer Wind.&amp;quot; I&amp;#039;m not sure how many other nine-year-olds croon Sinatra on the playground, but it earned him the honor of being the very first winner of &amp;quot;Junior Idol&amp;quot; at third grade recess. And for one day, he got a taste of what it must feel like to be Jordin Sparks or Taylor Hicks. This week, we will once again get into our p.j.&amp;#039;s, cuddle up on the couch and tune into American Idol. Who knows what it will inspire around here \u2013 besides, of course, the return of Family Hour. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/parenting/a2237/american-idol-addict/>