Father Figure

A few weeks back a friend of mine posed a question about children's programming that included a father figure.

I was floored.

We are just entering into children's programming and I must admit that was not something that I had really payed much attention to as I saw a few different episodes of programming.  Oddly enough, I was only really exposed to those that DID have a father figure.  Well, minus Sesame Street -- which is a whole different animal...err...monster.

One program, Calliou, has an involved father figure.  The marriage is valued and you see love and admiration between the parents.  You also see multi-generational living, which I love, because the grandparents are involved.  It's not the best graphics but I love it's innocence, imagination, and of course the family dynamic.  Two thumbs up!

Another program was, Sid the Science Kid.  This is from the Jim Henson Studios (think Muppet's, etc).  I like this show in general for older kids.  Miss L likes the music in general when they sing.  While the dad is n-involved here he is made out to be a big goof-ball.  It's sad really and it was something that I had picked up on while watching before the "father figure" question had been put forth.  There is even a song about how cool the mom is when Sid and his mom are driving to school.  Catchy, yet odd at the same time.

The show, Arthur, was put out in the conversation but I never have seen it.  Are there others that you out there in blog world can think of as well?  I think about this more as I watch different programming or think through movies that we might let the girls watch in the future.

As for Sesame Street, that is more of a community living.  Back when I was watching Sesame Street for my own "educational purposes" there were more family units involved which have since gone to the wayside only making appearance once in a very great while.  On top of that, if you didn't know about it from back in the day you may not put it all together.  However, there is some other education value as we are seeing Miss L interact and even start to count along... even if it usually is only to three and we still have ten lemons left to go! ha!

The lack of fathers in our programming is telling of our current society.  Think back to programming, children's or otherwise, father's were present, normal, involved, fun, etc.  They were heads of their household showing leadership, decisiveness, and manhood.  They generally were not mamby-pamby men.  I am thinking even I love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, Happy Days, Brady Bunch to name a few.  Oh how far we have come from that time period it seems... and it wasn't all that long ago!

Art imitating life or life imitating art?

Sigh.