Last Sunday night, my wife and I were lying in bed, watching TV, when the phone rang. That never happens on Sunday night in our house, so I jumped up and ran to answer it.

I wasn't the first to pick up. One of my 13-year-old daughters was already on the line with a friend, urgent whispers shooting across the fiber-optic line.

"Hello?" I interrupted.

"Dad!" my daughter called out. "Turn on the VMAs! Kanye West just dissed Taylor Swift!"

I dropped the phone and turned to my wife. "Quick! Turn on the VMAs! Kanye West just dissed Taylor!" My wife grabbed for the remote.

The problem is, we weren't being sarcastic. Somehow, after years and years of having almost all our time focused on and with kids, we have lost track of most of our adult interests and pursuits. Our adulthood is still there, but shriveled away, like a vestigial tail.

The kids have slowly taken over our living room TV. I'll put on something I like to watch, leave the room, and when I return the kid channel has been magically tuned in. I put back on my show, leave and it happens again. Eventually, I give up and just start watching "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" instead of whatever adult fare I'd been looking at. At some point, I'll even end up laughing.

The radio in our car is tuned so often to a kid's music station that I've just learned to leave it there, bopping along to the sounds of Miley Cyrus, rather than the rock and roll I grew up with. The CD in my stereo is by KidZ Bop. My wife, in fact, runs every day with her iPod loaded with "High School Musical" tunes.

For years, our lives were co-opted by "Sesame Street," "Rugrats" and "Dora the Explorer." I couldn't tell you anything about current political issues, but I could identify all the different engines on "Thomas the Tank Engine." It was a shock to my system when Steve left "Blue's Clues," and I never, ever fully accepted his fake brother Joe.

Our kids have gotten older, but we still have young teenagers in the house. I can count the number of R-rated movies I've seen in the past year, but I've seen all three Cheetah Girls movies. I used to watch CNN religiously, keeping up with the latest news by the hour. These days, the TV is usually tuned to Teen Nick, Nick Junior or ABC Family. Where other adults I know are consumed with rising crime rates, I was more shocked when Spinner got shot at the Dot with Holly J. on "Degrassi."

I'm not alone. I was at a neighborhood party recently when I walked into a group of people discussing the books they were currently reading. It took me a minute or two to realize all of them, to a person, were talking about the Harry Potter series.

The problem is, the kids are growing up faster than I am. The other day, I walked through the living room when "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" was on. Two of the teenage characters, high school students, were having a heated discussion about whether or not to have sex. I stopped short, my heart beginning to go into slight arrhythmia.

"Hey," I said, trying to sound upbeat. "Why don't we watch that Zack and Cody show? You know they've moved out of the hotel and now live on a cruise ship!"

My daughters turned to me and gave me a look of scorn.

"Dad," one said, "That's really kid stuff, don't you think?"

"Yeah!" I said. "That's the whole point!"

We sat there on the couch together, watching Zack and Cody run around the S.S. Tipton, my daughters frowning, and me laughing my juvenile little head off.