Our youth has destroyed us

The buzz the past couple of days has been about the "Sesame Street: Old School Volumes 1 and 2" self-imposed warning that states "These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child."

I can attest that no, the episodes aren't exactly relevant to today's kids, lacking a lot of today's sensibilities about child safety and attitudes we would like our kids to have. Cookie Monster has an eating disorder, strange men approach Ernie in the park offering him things under his overcoat, kids are shown playing around trash heaps, Oscar's disposition isn't something we want kids to emulate... etc. But at the same time, it's entertaining, not just to adults who grew up on the show, but to small children. I seriously think we're not giving today's youth enough credit to watch, and interpret storyies, sketches, and songs, and we're also giving them too much credit that they may read things into the show that clearly are beyond a child's understanding. Did we have any issues with watching Sesame Street? Nope, it was bright and colorful educational entertainment. We didn't think that Ernie and Bert were a couple when we were little, there was nothing about Mr. Snuffleupagus that made us think he was a drug induced hallucination, and we certainly didn't think Gordon was the resident drug dealer (seriously, dude never had a job, but always had nice clothes and was hanging out on the streets all day). These are thing that we, as adults project on the show, but as kids, it's all just fun and sillyness.

Quite frankly, the wee one loves watching these old Sesame Street shows, and we love watching them with him... and that's the problem with today's parents... it's cliche, but seriously too many parents think of TV as a babysitter. I know when my step son is watching TV or a DVD, he's got questions, wondering about what's happening, why it's happening, why something is funny or why people are sad, etc. That's why you watch with them, so you can answer questions instead of leaving them alone to passively take it all in without really understanding everything they see. Even if it's something he's watched a dozen times, sometimes he still has questions...

If we know he's seen someting a few times, we're a little more liberal about leaving him to watch something on his own, but still, we check in on him or he'll come seek us out if he still has questions.

The New York Times probes the overreactions to how damaging our youth was to us...