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Speaking as a former AIDS educator and a parent, it's easy to talk about AIDS with kids. I have a harder time explaining why they see people smoking ("don't they know it's bad for them?" "are they a bad person?" "are they going to die?") than AIDS.
Generally speaking, kids don't ask for more than they are ready to hear. Little kids will talk about a baby growing in mommy's tummy-- that's a part of their reality as there are often younger siblings or friends about to have younger siblings. They don't ask how the baby got there. If they do, they rarely ask for more than "when parents love each other, sometimes a baby grows." A lot of kids know about adoption but I've never heard a young child ask why a parent adopted versus having a biological child.
Kids know people get sick. Kids know about washing hands, not sharing cups and utensils, covering when they cough.... They know all those things are about staying healthy and not sharing germs. It isn't hard to explain that different illnesses get passed in different ways. You don't have to get into the details of all the ways a disease can be passed.
When my oldest was about three, we were at a mall play area and one of the kids had a bleeding cut. The kid was there with an elderly grandparent who wasn't concerned about the cut-- it didn't need stitches or anything, but the kid was leaving little trails of blood on the climbing structures and mats. Like most of the parents there, I got my kid and explained that we needed to leave. I explained that sometimes germs can be in blood and it wasn't safe to play anymore because the play structures needed to be cleaned. Not a big deal.
I am still irritated and embarrassed about the response to Kami in this country. Congress held a hearing about this. Forget homelessness in America, forget kids without healthcare, school shootings, social security-- let's worry about an orphaned child puppet with HIV on another continent. There's really no excuse.
If you want to get into what makes SST the way it is today, look at the preschool TV world. When SST premiered it had no (real) competition. Today I know plenty of kids who have never watched it-- their parents watched it but now they plop their kids in front of the Disney channel, or Nickelodian or Cartoon Network.
That's what's behind the baby SST DVDs-- it isn't about making quality TV for babies (an oxymoron if ever there was one). It's about branding. Getting the kids hooked on the characters and the parents into the SST habit before they're lost to Dora and Blue and the Disney princesses.
We can argue that SST would find a larger audience by going back to its roots, but we're the choir (as in preaching to). We love the old SST and we understand the value and the rarity of that kind of quality. A lot parents, intelligent, thoughtful parents, turn on cable and stay there. They don't know what SST is doing today because they've never bothered to look.
If we want better television (better TV for kids, better programs for adults-- whatever) we have to stop consuming the crap. If we (the collective we) weren't watching it, they wouldn't be making it. I know way too many people who complain endlessly about how bad shows are (kid shows and other shows) and yet they continue to watch them and continue to turn them on for their kids. They buy the merchandise for their kids. Nothings going to change that way.
It's frustrating because we're in the minority and that makes it hard to be heard and hard to be counted. SST doesn't have to work too hard to get us to watch. We're also not their market. They need young kids and parents and that is a constantly changing group (the kids outgrow SST and a new set has to be brought in). SST is trying to compete and they're competing against all the fancy bells and whistles that grab attention. In a toy store, kids gravitate to the electronic toys with the fancy gadgets and buttons. Those toys generally don't have a lot of staying power (kids get bored with them pretty fast once you get them home) but it's hard for a wooden car to compete with a shiny remote control car that honks and spins at the press of a button.
Generally speaking, kids don't ask for more than they are ready to hear. Little kids will talk about a baby growing in mommy's tummy-- that's a part of their reality as there are often younger siblings or friends about to have younger siblings. They don't ask how the baby got there. If they do, they rarely ask for more than "when parents love each other, sometimes a baby grows." A lot of kids know about adoption but I've never heard a young child ask why a parent adopted versus having a biological child.
Kids know people get sick. Kids know about washing hands, not sharing cups and utensils, covering when they cough.... They know all those things are about staying healthy and not sharing germs. It isn't hard to explain that different illnesses get passed in different ways. You don't have to get into the details of all the ways a disease can be passed.
When my oldest was about three, we were at a mall play area and one of the kids had a bleeding cut. The kid was there with an elderly grandparent who wasn't concerned about the cut-- it didn't need stitches or anything, but the kid was leaving little trails of blood on the climbing structures and mats. Like most of the parents there, I got my kid and explained that we needed to leave. I explained that sometimes germs can be in blood and it wasn't safe to play anymore because the play structures needed to be cleaned. Not a big deal.
I am still irritated and embarrassed about the response to Kami in this country. Congress held a hearing about this. Forget homelessness in America, forget kids without healthcare, school shootings, social security-- let's worry about an orphaned child puppet with HIV on another continent. There's really no excuse.
If you want to get into what makes SST the way it is today, look at the preschool TV world. When SST premiered it had no (real) competition. Today I know plenty of kids who have never watched it-- their parents watched it but now they plop their kids in front of the Disney channel, or Nickelodian or Cartoon Network.
That's what's behind the baby SST DVDs-- it isn't about making quality TV for babies (an oxymoron if ever there was one). It's about branding. Getting the kids hooked on the characters and the parents into the SST habit before they're lost to Dora and Blue and the Disney princesses.
We can argue that SST would find a larger audience by going back to its roots, but we're the choir (as in preaching to). We love the old SST and we understand the value and the rarity of that kind of quality. A lot parents, intelligent, thoughtful parents, turn on cable and stay there. They don't know what SST is doing today because they've never bothered to look.
If we want better television (better TV for kids, better programs for adults-- whatever) we have to stop consuming the crap. If we (the collective we) weren't watching it, they wouldn't be making it. I know way too many people who complain endlessly about how bad shows are (kid shows and other shows) and yet they continue to watch them and continue to turn them on for their kids. They buy the merchandise for their kids. Nothings going to change that way.
It's frustrating because we're in the minority and that makes it hard to be heard and hard to be counted. SST doesn't have to work too hard to get us to watch. We're also not their market. They need young kids and parents and that is a constantly changing group (the kids outgrow SST and a new set has to be brought in). SST is trying to compete and they're competing against all the fancy bells and whistles that grab attention. In a toy store, kids gravitate to the electronic toys with the fancy gadgets and buttons. Those toys generally don't have a lot of staying power (kids get bored with them pretty fast once you get them home) but it's hard for a wooden car to compete with a shiny remote control car that honks and spins at the press of a button.
