Yeah.. saw an old Nightline clip where they show Mr Rogers in around 1968 explain assassination to kids.. damn.. Fred Rogers was amazing..
That’s not as disturbing as when Little Bear was naked in a way too small tub with his naked father. To be fair they were always naked. But now that I think of it Little Bear was always naked but his parents got to wear clothes. They couldn’t buy him some pants?
can’t let children know that bad things happen
Donald Duck didn’t need pants.
IIRC, he always wore a coat and a hat when it was cold out. Wait, why does a bear need a coat? Doesn’t the whole “being a bear” thing sort of cancel out the need for a coat?
Unless you’re Paddington, then you NEED your duffle coat!
I’m sorry but D.W. is just a bitch. When I watch that show I want her to get hit by a car.
I know I wasn’t the only one cheering when Arthur finally grew a pair and punched her.
Francine was another who needed to get hers.
I’ve seen that episode of Arthur - my toddler watched it.
Her TV-viewing is very tightly controlled - much more tightly-controlled than her parents’ tongues are every waking moment. She recently got her little toy shopping cart jammed up on some furniture and declared “Shit de câlice!” Far from being something she heard on TV, this was her own invention, a blilingual hybrid of context-if-not-age-appropriate oaths she has had the opportunity to overhear in the house when mama and papa forget themselves for a moment.
We delicately try to dissuade her from using taboo words, without giving her the impression that they are super-powerful words that she can bust out to get a guaranteed reaction. I was glad to see that episode of Arthur - any little reinforcement of our attempts to explain why we’d prefer it if she didn’t use certain words (especially in polite company) is welcome. 
There was a story and maybe an episode where Little Bear kept coming in and saying he was cold and needed something to put on (hat, scarf, etc.). At the end he says he really needs a fur coat and so takes off all his clothing and goes out with…the fur coat he already has on.
:smack: I remember that now. My “baby” is 14, and I haven’t read the books in years.
Children’s programming has really grown up in recent years.
Adventure Time: More sexual innuendo than you can shake a dildo at, at times I have almost burst out laughing at what they slip in. The show is almost a deconstruction of kids shows, which sometimes gets downright brutal and depressing.
Star Wars Clone Wars: Blade Runner level moral ambiguity for your five year old, “those weren’t clones that died out there, those were men!”. The slavery episodes were probably some of the darkest shit to be seen on Cartoon Network.
Invader Zim: A villain protagonist, and a cynical misanthropic outlook tempered with a sense of humor make this gorgeous series far lighter in tone than it should be. “I love you cold, unfeeling robot arm!”.
Avatar The Last Airbender: Fantasy adventure series that has a brutal genocidal worldwide war as a focal point of the plot, often it feels that they are struggling to tell their story under the restrictions of being a “kids show”.
And like every other show- once that sexual tension is broken, it just goes downhill.
I’ll be sending you an invoice for a monitor, a keyboard, and a coffee.
“Through the woods, over the hill, and past Jerry Sandusky’s house!”
If you want a few tears in your eyes, Youtube up the Sesame Street where they deal with the fact that will Lee, the actor who played Mr. Hooper, died. The adults tell Big Bird that Mr. Hooper died. He’s not just written out of the show; they don’t tell him Mr. Hooper went away, or that he was sold to a nice farm family or something; they tell him he died. “He’s dead,” says Maria. No euphemisms like “passed” are used; they say he died. When Big Bird asks when he’s coming back they explain he’s never coming back. They’re upset, and Big Bird gets upset, in much the same manner a child would.
It’s touching (in part because the cast starts crying for real over their friend - some can barely deliver their lines) but it’s phenomenal television. They have to deal with someone dying, in no small aprt due to the fact that Mr. Hooper was the most beloved of the live cast members and the issue couldn’t be ignored, and so they deal with it, but in a way that reassures Big Bird - and therefore the children watching - of the things they need to be reassured about; that they will be taken care of, that it wasn’t their fault, and so on. It’s really one of the most remarkably devised, written, and performed scenes in the history of television.
In a subtle but brilliant move, at the end of the episode, Big Bird is introduced to a neighbor and their new baby. Though it’s not actually said, the circle of life continues; “One day they’re not here and the next day they are!” Big Bird says of babies, stating the reverse of death. Life goes on, the story says; sometimes it sucks, but sometimes it’s pretty awesome, so draw courage from the good parts and you’ll get through the bad.
You can deal with this stuff with kids. Perhaps more to the point, you need to. My kid’s 6 and has asked me things about death and whatnot, and it’s a LOT easier to deal with it in a sensitive, intelligent manner than avoiding it. Do it right and you give the child the understanding they need to build the their character.
Am I the only parent who actually seeks out the “dark” stuff so that we can have these conversations with our kids? I’d far rather we discuss house fires and grandmothers dying for the first time when it’s not actually *our *house on fire, or *my *child’s grandmother dying.
I also loved the episodes they shot after Hurricane Katrina - Big Bird’s nest is destroyed and everyone has to deal with it. “My nest, my home…”
Yes you are the only one. They learn that stuff soon enough. No need to harden them at three. I didn’t need to have my kids be the salty veterans in kindergarten. “Kid, if you had seen what I’ve seen…”
He was from darkest Peru. Wasn’t used to our winters.
Every time a distant relative dies, my mother tells me that I need to visit the wake and bring my son so he can see a dead body before it’s hers.
I don’t think it’s hardening them to introduce them to the idea that bad things happen. There are some kids who experience things like that firsthand. Telling them about it is hardly going to alter them greatly.