You Really Can't Go Home Again

With a little one in the house, I’ve become reacquainted with kids’ TV shows, songs, and other things you only see/hear when you have a toddler.

As good as some of the new shows are, I was excited to introduce C to some of the old standbys I enjoyed as a kid. I have fond memories of watching Mister Rogers, Sesame Street, The Muppets, Tom and Jerry, and other great shows.

So not long ago, it finally fit into our schedule to sit down and watch Sesame Street. C and I settled into the rocker in his room and I prepared to introduce him to all the awesome things I remembered about the ‘Street.

You know, the “1 2 3 4 5, 6 7 8 9 10, 11 12” music video that looks like a psychedelic pinball machine, seeing how crayons are made (my personal favorite), counting with The Count (Mwaa haa haa!), watching Cookie Monster eat/crumble his cookies all over the place, singing “Rubber Ducky” with Ernie and watching Oscar be a definite grouch.

But guess what, ya’ll. Sesame Street might have the same Luis, Big Bird, and Oscar, but it is not the same place anymore. I was extremely disappointed, to say the least.

I remember hearing a few years back about how Sesame Street was getting more “politically correct” with Cookie Monster eating broccoli and saying cookies were only a “sometimes” food, blah, blah.

Cookie Monster eating broccoli? Eh, I can handle it, I suppose. But this was crazy. Let me just tell ya’ll what got under my skin.

Prairie Dawn, the little reporter girl, was doing a report on preparing for emergencies. Sleeping Beauty was preparing for her emergency…what would happen if she didn’t have the Handsome Prince to wake her? So she had an alarm clock, a rooster that would crow, and then if those things didn’t work, the rooster would play a bugle.

Sleeping Beauty decided to test her back-up methods and found that, indeed, the bugle-playing rooster could wake her. So guess what. She decided she didn’t need the Handsome Prince anymore because she could be self-sufficient. And in no uncertain terms, she let the Handsome Prince know that he could take a hike…and go find some other princess who was weak enough to need him.

I’m sorry, did I miss something?

Since when did princesses not need a prince? Not want a prince? I’m all about having a back-up plan. And I definitely understand not wanting to depend on someone else all the time. But come on! This is Sleeping Beauty, for crying out loud. You don’t mess with fairytale princesses. And you certainly don’t push “woman’s-lib” on my toddler.

So we won’t be regular Sesame Street watchers at our house. There are lots of things I can tolerate, but princesses who don’t need princes are not one of them.