Kissing cousins

We've just returned from visiting cousins on the other side of town, and it was strange to feel our lives had so diverged. The kids entertained themselves in front of Foxtel, we ordered pizza, and they poured my little ones big glasses of Sprite.

I felt overprotective and paranoid, and although we loved seeing them, I couldn't wait to get away; our normality was seriously challenged by theirs.

This is the hard stuff. I can coax my boys into cloth nappies by calling them "astronaut undies". I can stay up late to cook & freeze so we don't rely on packaged additives on the days I'm not at home to cook. But how do I tell my 9 year old cousin, who has so generously demonstrated her entire jazz dancing repertoire, that I don't want my children watching the toxic TV show she's glued to (and that she and her sisters are singing the theme song for, solos and all).

Here's where I come to ask how.