Photograph: Richard Termine/AP - with thanks to Hadley Freeman, www.guardian.co.uk
Okay, so where was I when they (you know, they) decided that Sesame Street was harmful to children? Sesame Street! The same show that I was stuck to back in the seventies when I was a three and four year old is now too much for children to handle. That's pish posh and a lot of b.s. I was a pretty sheltered child, or so I thought. My parents protected me, and didn't let me do any old thing I wanted, and I am very happy with the way they raised me and with my childhood, especially those early years when Sesame Street was supposedly rotting my brain and imparting horrible life lessons. Did children all of a sudden become superfragile? You can't show Cookie Monster eating cookies because it promotes obesity? How about you, as a parent, taking the cookie out of your own child's hand? Ernie and Bert bathing together might give the wrong impression? I bathed with my little sister when I was a little kid, and I did more pretend swimming and she ate more soap than anything else. I'm surprised my mom ever deemed us clean enough to get out. And we turned out okay -- maybe we missed scrubbing behind the ears, but we're alright.
I don't know. I'm feeling like I should buy the DVDs of the classic Sesame Street and show my kids those instead of letting them watch an hour long commercial for Elmo.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/magazine/18wwln-medium-t.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/tv/2007/11/sesame_street_not_suitable_for.html
Guess this means I need to skip to figuring out RSS feeds so I can get this kind of information right away rather than a month and a half after it happens!
