Goren Is My Sacred Cow

I was sick last week, which means I searched for and watched Law & Order marathons. My all time rankings for Dick Wolf shows look like this:

1. Law & Order: Criminal Intent
2. Law & Order: SVU
3. Law & Order
4. Every abruptly cancelled iteration of Law & Order
5. Chicago P.D.
6. Chicago Fire
7. Law & Order: True Crime
8. All the ones I've never watched.

Since Criminal Intent is my favorite, I've pretty much watched every episode several times. Last week they showed the episodes where Goren goes to therapy. His cruel mother is dead, but he still can't speak ill of her to his therapist.

I know I've seen the episodes before, but for whatever reason, this time that idea really struck me. It was all I could do not to wake the kids and tell them that it was okay for them to complain about me to their future therapists.

I mean, I doubt any of them will go on to become emotionally unstable, professionally successful police detectives who must go to therapy to keep their jobs, but I don't know that for a fact. And of course, it's not only Dick Wolf characters who go to therapy. Chances are good that at least one of my kids will need some help some day.

And while I sure hope they don't have to go to therapy BECAUSE of me, I also hope that if they do go they feel free to bitch about all the times the tooth fairy was several days late. Or how I wore antlers to chaperone the school holiday party. Or all the times I yelled.

I want my kids to know that I'm not a sacred cow, especially with their therapists. Most especially after I'm dead.

I want my kids to understand the difference between criticism and disrespect, between loving acceptance and worship, between acknowledgement and responsibility.

I'm not entirely sure how to do this, although I'm tempted to have them just watch all the Goren episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent  with me so we can properly analyze all the issues Goren and his mother have. I suspect, though, that this would be fodder for their own future therapist visits and would probably have the terrible side effect of making them not appreciate the awesomeness of Goren as a character.

I'm definitely NOT okay with that side effect.