You easily can spot parents during the holidays.

They're the ones you see ushering their children and their friends' children into the movie theater for one of those feature-length cartoons.

It's not that we want to go see these movies. It's just that it beats picking up gum off the living room carpet or watching the same Barney tape for the zillionth time.

Throw in a big container of buttered popcorn and you have the makings of at least an hour of "quiet time."

On Friday, Joni and I took our two daughters to see "Rugrats: The Movie."

Not surprisingly, the girls liked it. At age 2 and 6, Bailey and Becca, respectively, can relate to this tale of the lost baby brother. It's not that they have a baby brother, but they can relate to all that kid angst.

Certainly, it's not "The Fugitive" by any stretch of the imagination, but it is full of non-stop animated action with Tommy and Dill Pickles and the gang.

Joni and I even found some humor in it. Parenting is a whole lot funnier when it is captured in a cartoon.

You don't mind those movie messes. Home wrecking, and I'm speaking literally here, is a fine art in the world of animation.

It's just not as funny in real life where you have to actually clean up the spills.

Of course, you could settle for a videotape instead and the comfort of your own home.

But renting a movie isn't the same. Kids don't sit still on the living room couch, eyes glued to the set.

They watch a tape for a while, but soon they get bored and saunter off to the kitchen for some munchies. Or they search the back room for their favorite dolls that they had left behind next to the scattered holiday pencils and children's books. Or they want the Barbie jeep charged up.

In a dark movie theater, we've found, they are less likely to wander off.

They're also less likely to want you to fetch things for them. Sometimes, parents feel like the pet dog. We're always being asked to bring things to our children, like shoes, socks, chocolate milk and apple juice.

Becca's loose tooth came out during Friday's movie outing. Thankfully, it didn't get lost in the popcorn and inadvertently swallowed by one of our clan.

I put it in my pocket for safekeeping. You can never be too careful with a lost tooth.

At any rate, the cinematic adventure proved profitable for Becca who woke up the next morning to find the tooth fairy had left her $2.

As for Bailey, she kept her clothes on during the entire movie.

At home, she isn't so commited to wearing clothes. She regularly changes from one play dress to the next.

She frequently discards all her clothes in favor of the naked look.

We haven't convinced her yet that it's best to be dressed.

Still, there are some rules that she's learned.

"Don't lick your shoes because they have germs" is one of the rules she confided to us.

She also knows not to play with sharp scissors or knives because, as she says, "you could cut it off."

That's a scary thought even in animation.

Thankfully, even the Rugrats know that some rules shouldn't be broken.

~Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.