Question about child rearing -

[sourboy]

My girlfriend was watching the Care Bears...

You know her better than I, but you may want to devote some time to this.

Do you think teaching children the concept of "good guys" and "bad guys" is ideal?

I don't like dealing in absolutes. I think children should be taught correctly from the start. Santa and the Tooth Fairy may be fun, but the lessons associated with the imaginary figures are often lost by the iconic value of the figure itself. When I begin my fatherhood, I will teach my children what I have learned. Obviously this will be taught slowly over time as their intellect grows, but I feel they should understand things for the way they are. In this particular case, I would teach the child that everyone is capable of doing good and bad things. I surely wouldn't want a child to think that just because a person does something bad that they should be shunned, but rather that they need to be taught the proper way. This would be a good lesson for many religious fanatics and world leaders today, as well.

 

[Ayatollah So]

In this particular case, I would teach the child that everyone is capable of doing good and bad things. I surely wouldn't want a child to think that just because a person does something bad that they should be shunned, but rather that they need to be taught the proper way. This would be a good lesson for many religious fanatics and world leaders today, as well.

Lots of posters have changed the subject from good and bad guys to good and bad acts. Thanks for changing it back.

Good and bad acts, no problem. "Good guys" and "bad guys" - danger Will Robinson! That sort of black-and-white thinking is routinely used to rationalize all sorts of horrors: we're the good guys, you can trust us! If we're doing it, it must be right! Yikes. If you can find any cartoons where people come in subtler flavors than pure good and pure evil, by all means steer your kids toward those. Characters who actually have to struggle against the occasional vice make much better role models.

 

[DragonRunner]

Cartoons do tend to feature absolute concepts of bad guys- largely because most of them are wrapped up in a half hour and are never seen again- there isn't time for backstory and the like, as it cuts away from the action. Usually, though, IIRC (being 10 or so years removed from my last kiddie cartoon) the good guy learns a moral lesson or overcomes an imperfection of some sort. They are rarely perfect.

Now, on to Thomas the Tank Engine- man, I loved that as a kid. I'd spend hours building the wooden tracks and watching the TV shows. I vaguely remember some old picture books, but I wasn't introduced to the complete works of the Rev. W. Audrey until later in life. As such, my favorite character was always Henry. He was a lot less of an @$$ on TV, though he did have his good points in the books, as well. Donald and Douglas were some of my other favorites. I remember the old TV shows with Ringo Starr, though sadly, I was too young to realize who he was then. Ahh, good memories.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I take a rather exteme view of TV and kids. Prior to about age six I don't think kids should watch any kids programming on "live" TV. They should only see taped or CD versions without ads. I would rule out all product based shows like Care Bears and stick to shows like: Fraggle Rock, Thomas the tank Engine & co.; Pee Wee's playhouse; Gumby and Mr. Rogers, or their equivalent today. I would also limit time spent in front of the tube to a couple of hours a day at most. The redeeming qualities of TV, on a scale of 1 to 100 is somewhere between 0 and 2 as far as children under the age of 12 are concerned.

 

[Odin2006]

Thomas the Tank Engine (which I loved when I was little) s a good example of a show that doesn't deal with a simplistic "good vs. evil" thing, but deals with more subtle things like arrogance and hubris.

The problem with too many cartoon villians is that thgey rarely have any redeeming quality about them, very few people are as evil as the stereotypical cartoon villian. What happened to the redeemable "imperfect" caracters like Ebenezer Scrooge?

 

[joycem10]

I would rule out all product based shows like Care Bears and stick to shows like: ...Thomas the tank Engine & co

Thomas is a non-product based show? Wow, you can tell you dont have a kid. I've got about a grand invested in Thomas toys.

 

[sanabas]

Thomas is a non-product based show? Wow, you can tell you dont have a kid. I've got about a grand invested in Thomas toys.

I suspect that means shows that weren't spawned from toys. Thomas has spawned lots of toys, but things like transformers, care bears, etc were toys first, tv shows second. I agree with one of Birdjaguar's choices: Just let them watch nothing but Fraggle Rock. That way it might get released on DVD in its entirety so I can buy it.

 

[Rambuchan]

The Fraggle Rock theme tune was one of the funkiest around on kids tv for quite some time.

"Down at Fraggle Rock, Down at Fraggle Rock."