She’s an only child, and we didn’t grow up in America, so she’s a bit naive on a lot of things. Her teacher advised us the other day that she’s such a sweet girl, but middle school could be brutal for her because of that. What are some wholesome shows I can watch with her that helps her get ready for the world?
EDIT:
This is an astounding collection of shows. Thank you so much! We’ve started watching Amphibia, and really enjoying it so far. I’ll add all these to the backlog. Thanks again!
She actually grew up here, but my wife is a ‘bit’ conservative, and doesn’t want to expose our daughter to the ‘bad parts’ of the western culture. That’s fine, but too much of anything is not a good thing, and it’s causing our daughter to grow up sheltered. (for instance, Craig of the Creek used to be her favorite show a couple of years ago, but my wife found out it has some queer representation in it, and banned her from watching it. I have to pick my battles, so I can’t argue with her for every single thing). Her friends are already starting to make fun of her for how ‘ignorant’ she is on some topics. I’m in a tough spot, but trying to do the best with what cards I’ve been dealt.
I realize this probably won’t change anything given what you’ve said, but I felt compelled to reply.
I do not think banning something because it has queer representation or something similar is a good idea. I haven’t watched that show, so I cannot comment on it in particular, but if all it was doing was going “here are these queer people living normal lives like everyone else,” then there’s no real harm. All banning stuff like ylthat really does is cement in your child’s head that these people are weird and abnormal when she finds out they exist (especially if she asks your wife, it sounds like). Importantly, hiding stuff from your kids isn’t gonna stop them from learning about it, they’ll learn through alternate sources eventually.
Anecdotally, my conservative parents did something similar with my younger brother. They banned certain children’s networks on TV when he was growing because they didn’t like the content. Well, he eventually got unfettered access to YouTube and the internet as a whole and is now a fascist (self-described). Presumably the only reason he isn’t virulently anti-LGBTQ+ is because I am LGBTQ+. I, on the other hand, had to research practically everything myself because I felt like I had no one I could talk to given my parents’ views (especially given some of the horror stories on the internet). Note that I grew up when LGBTQ+ representation in children’s shows was pretty much nonexistent or super minor still.
Yeah I totally get your point. You’re preaching to the choir here. Funny thing is, even if my daughter comes across anything like that, she just assumes that’s normal. There’s a show she watched where a boy had two dads, and she never even asked me why there are two dads lol. My wife got into the YouTube deepend on many topics, so it’s pretty much impossible to change her mind about pretty much anything. Any time I try to go against her in any of the parenting choices, I immediately become a ‘bad dad’. At this point I’m smuggling contraband for my daughter.