Halloween is right around the corner, and if you’re anything like us, you’ve been thinking about this holiday since the middle of August. We still have a few giveaways in our ghoulish goodies, and we just started our Halloween Photo Contest, so be sure to submit your photos by Nov. 7—we’ve got some really awesome prizes for the winners! In this weeks round-up, we’ve included Techie Toddlers, Full House, kids raising awareness for breast cancer, It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and Mr. Rogers.
One day, I was at my brother’s house hanging out with my nieces. My then 1-year-old niece saw my phone—it was a Blackberry—picked it up, and tried to play with it. When she swiped her finger across the screen. When it didn’t do anything, she turned and gave me the phone and said, “Fix it.” In her post Techie Toddlers on Huffington Post, Farah L. Miller talks about toddlers and technology and how kids watch and learn from what we do and say.
But, like most toddlers I meet, she is tech-savvy in a way that not even today’s hyper-digital tweens and teens were at her age. Ubiquitous screens are a given. TV shows arrive on demand. Phone calls mean you can see the person you are talking to. Mommy and Daddy are on their gadgets all the time.
I can (and do) wrestle with this from a psychological perspective – what is all this technology doing to my kid? I embrace it too. What did parents who have to lie next to a crib in the dark to get their babies to sleep do before iPhones? But sometimes I think that in the same way it took me thinking about that first tantrum to understand what it really meant, it’s important to listen to the words our babies are using when they talk about tech. They are telling us what they know, what they need, and how they are being shaped by a world that is different from ours.
Are you a fan of Full House? Do your kids watch the reruns on TV? Even if you’ve only ever seen one episode, you’ll appreciate this clip of Tom Hanks performing a slam poem about Full House on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
Every October, NFL players don pink gear to support and raise awareness for breast cancer. The pink gear is then auctioned off to raise money for the American Cancer Society’s Community Health Advocates National Grants for Empowerment, which funds outreach and breast cancer screenings. Eleven-year-old Dante Cano, from Marlboro, NJ wondered why the refs weren’t using pink penalty flags. So, he wrote this letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell:
Goodell agreed with Dante, so he invited the “Cano family to MetLife Stadium for Sunday’s Jets-Dolphins game, where the pink penalty flags will be used. The family will present the flags to the officials prior to the game.”
Whenever I think of holiday TV specials, Charlie Brown always comes to mind, especially It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown during the Halloween season. Dadcamp’s recent post on Babble It’s Time to Retire, Charlie Brown talks about how times have changed and the Charlie Brown specials should not be shown anymore because how mean everyone is to Charlie Brown.
This was not appropriate viewing for children. In fact, it’s terrible.
The show is riddled with the kids calling each other stupid, dumb, and blockheads. There is continuous teasing and bullying. Charlie Brown is supposed to be the hero, instead he is kicked and demeaned at every turn, even by the adults giving out candy.
Denise Schipani of Mean Moms Rule completely disagrees with Dadcamp in her post I Don’t Think Watching “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” Will Turn My Sons Into Bullies.
It was also clear to me then, as it is now (and as it is to my sons, who thanks to the fact that we own the DVD have now seen the show many more times than I ever did), that watching kids be mean on TV doesn’t automatically translate into them being mean in real life. …
My boys call each other dumb-ball and idiot about as often as they use each other’s given names. They’d also rise to their dumb-ball brother’s defense in a hot minute, should someone else threaten. They are also, I’m quick to add, admonished and told they’re being mean when they are, you know, being mean.
That’s my job – to tell them that that sort of speech is not right. But it’s not my job to keep them from ever hearing kids call each other bad things. Especially when it’s fictional and animated!
What do you readers think? Will you let your kids watch the Charlie Brown holiday movies, or will you find them other holiday movies to watch? Finally, we found this great infographic of fun facts and trivia of Mr. Rogers. Thanks, PBS!
