A case study in child development

[The Folk Prophet]

Or maybe people development, since I believe the idea here works on adults to a certain extent too (especially immature, poorly raised, thoughtless adults).

So my child is 2. One of her favorite things is the show Daniel Tiger. My wife and I have really enjoyed Daniel Tiger too, and don't find it annoying to have on repeatedly, unlike some other types of kids shows. And we like most of the teaching things in Daniel Tiger. I mean, sure, it's annoying as stink that they have to celebrate "Fall Festival", "Snowflake Day" and "Love Day" instead of Halloween, Christmas and Valentines Day...but whatever.

But I've noticed a very interesting phenomenon that is a very clear, direct, result of my child's interest in this show. There are several examples, but I'm going to use the most problematic as the case study.

Storms!

Every time anything related to storms occurs now in my child's life -- cloudy, rainy, thunder, indications of such on any tv show, book, etc., or even the mention of the word "storm", and we get this strange, over-the-top, "I'm scared", run-and-hide reaction.

Now if this was legit, big thunder and lightening and hurricane winds and rain then I'd take it as a natural reaction. But her reactions are NOT natural or normal. She has been taught this behavior.

You see, there's a storm episode on Daniel Tiger. And I see the good teaching intention -- kids are likely to be scared in a big storm, so let's do an episode where the kids are scared of storms and their parents, etc., help them handle it. Good idea in theory.

But the handling it part isn't the lesson that my daughter takes away. The lesson is that storms are scary.

And it makes me mad.

Anyhow, I thought it was an interesting case study in the way we are influenced as we grow, particularly when there's such a push to introduce certain ideas into children's lives earlier and earlier (I'm thinking, for example, sexual orientation and gender identity issues). You often hear the argument that "kids are going to be introduced to this sort of stuff anyway -- so just go see such-n-such movie that introduces that stuff" or the like. That point is dumb. First, the reality that kids are going to face storms doesn't mean you need allow outside sources to negatively influence the way your child views said storm. And the way kids are influenced isn't always in the way we might hope. And telling kids storms are scary is an exceedingly stupid way to try and teach kids to not be scared of storms. (I understand, for what it's worth, that the two ideas (storms and sexual orientation) don't correlate, particularly wherein they're, in my mind, opposite -- in that a little rain shouldn't be viewed as dangerous, whereas sexual orientation agendas, in my opinion, should be viewed as dangerous...but I would hope that intelligent people can glean from the idea the underlying point -- that kids can be unintentionally influenced inadvertently in negative ways).

Anyhow, I thought it was interesting. It will also be interesting to see how well she learns/responds to my efforts every time she's "scared" of storm things to encourage her that "storms are awesome!" "Isn't this exciting?", etc.

Edited June 1, 2019 by The Folk Prophet

[Guest Mores]

2 hours ago, The Folk Prophet said:

But the handling it part isn't the lesson that my daughter takes away. The lesson is that storms are scary.

You may not like this observation, but it seems you're thinking what a SJW parent would think.  A TV show brought up an example of kids who are scared of storms.  Now you think the show told your kid to be scared of storms.

I remember the first time I saw an episode of a TV show where someone was scared of a storm.  My reaction was,"Why are they scared of the storm?"  I may not have been 2. But I was very young.  Somehow, I don't think she's scared of storms because the show taught her anything.  I think she's scared of storms because she would have been scared of storms in real life.

[The Folk Prophet]

3 hours ago, Mores said:

You may not like this observation, but it seems you're thinking what a SJW parent would think.  A TV show brought up an example of kids who are scared of storms.  Now you think the show told your kid to be scared of storms.

I remember the first time I saw an episode of a TV show where someone was scared of a storm.  My reaction was,"Why are they scared of the storm?"  I may not have been 2. But I was very young.  Somehow, I don't think she's scared of storms because the show taught her anything.  I think she's scared of storms because she would have been scared of storms in real life.

I can't come up with a way to reply to this without being rude. And I don't want to be rude, but I want the rude point to come across anyhow. So if you can just imagine an exceedingly rude response then you'll understand what I think of your reply.

Edited June 1, 2019 by The Folk Prophet

[Vort]

I agree completely. What's more, I think this happens all the time, and to all of us, both as learners and as teachers. I wish I knew how to avoid such unintended consequences.

[mordorbund]

Are we going to talk about the pants thing too? Cuz that bugs me, but I don't know why. And I'm not sure if I want to know why it bugs me.

[Vort]

2 hours ago, mordorbund said:

Are we going to talk about the pants thing too? Cuz that bugs me, but I don't know why. And I'm not sure if I want to know why it bugs me.

Apparently in the feline world, Mama wears the pants in the family.