Thursday, January 26, 2006

Desperate Houseplants?!?!?!

I recently saw a segment of Sesame Street entitled "Desperate Houseplants" that, honestly, gave me the heebie jeebies.

In it, these two houseplants are sitting in the window lamenting the lack of care they have endured. They say stuff like, "If only someone would water us..."

Then the gardener walks by. And they say something like "Oh, the gardener! He really knows what a plant needs." Then the gardener waters them and I am thinking (and hoping my memory serves me correctly) that one of the plants says "oh, that feels so good."

Has anyone seen it? Maybe it is just me overreacting. Or maybe it was the title that made me imagine there was some innuendo that was never intended. But it just grossed me out to see that on a little kids' show.

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7 Comments:

Blogger Stephanie said...

Oh my word...i saw it too. In fact, i was taping that episode. I was shocked. Completely befuddled! What are they thinking?

I thought maybe I was overreacting too but now I don't think so.

We aren't the only one's either. I did a search for it and found a couple other bloggers who were shocked. I guess they've also done "Grouch Eye for the Nice Guy" and a parody of The Apprentice too.

Holy Cow!

Thu Jan 26, 08:17:00 AM  
Blogger Addie said...

Have you ever seen the Elmo's World where he's "thinking about Family's"? During the beginning in the music montage it shows lot's of different 'families'. Families of different ethnic backgrounds, some with both parents some with one, and they might even have a grandparent. But they also show a little kid with two adult men eating icecream together. Now You could say they were uncles but the men are of two completely different nationality's. Every time I see it, (which unfortunately means my kids have seen it a few times also) I try to find an excuse for them in my mind, but I really think they are supposed to represent an 'alternative' family. That is not an idea that I want to introduce to my two year old. Thankfully my second is not really into Sesame Street.

Have you guys ever seen this and did it look weird to you?

Thu Jan 26, 10:49:00 AM  
Blogger Heather Hansen said...

Patty,

The original post was about sex and exposing our kids to sexual innuendos. We agree that those images are not the best for kids, right? Good. That issue aside I’d like to respond your comment.

This is one of the reasons that I continually lose my faith. I can't see how people can call themselves good Christian people but still manage to pass judgement on everyone that doesn't fall into what they consider to be "normal" and "acceptable" behavior.

The “continually lose my faith” part because of someone else bothers me. Your walk is your walk. Your relationship with God is solely dependant upon youself. You will not stand up at judgment day and be able to say, “well you know, Jimmy and Susie talked bad about people and it made me not believe in you.”

We are told to go to church to be around other Christians so that we can be part of a community. And as part of the community we need to hold each other up (And I believe that in your way, you’re doing this).

Are there extreamly right-wing Christians that can’t see the speck because of the board? SURE! But God loves and forgives us all! Isn’t that great? Even me, although sometimes I have a hard time understanding it!

God even gave us a plan for Christian’s who do not practice what they preach:
Matthew 23: 2-3
The teachers of the law and the pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you to. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.

I don’t, however, think that hating homosexuals was what the commenters meant in their post. I can see how you read it that way, but I don’t think that’s what they were trying to say. I think what they meant was, my child is two, he/she can barely grasp things like love and it would be confusing to a small child to say, God teaches us to get married and have children, but there is this alternate lifestyle…

Do you see what I’m trying (not so well) to say? It’s like teaching a baby about sex. You could tell them all the directions but will they really get it?

And one last thing to PEZmama, do you breed controversy?! LOL

Thu Jan 26, 02:44:00 PM  
Blogger Addie said...

Patti, I think we are talking about 2 different things. Just to clarify my point, I said:
"That is not an idea that I want to introduce to my two year old."

That's all. I don't want my daughter to include in her mental encyclopedia that family can mean 2 men or 2 women as parents. That's my preference as her parent. She will soon learn about different lifestyles, but I plan on giving her a little bit more of a moral compass before that. I do not want to shield her from the realities of life, but as a parent I want to be able to give her a bit of guidance before she is exposed to those 'realities'.

I realize that Sesame Street has the right to produce whatever show they wish and that some very kind, very honorable, very principled people do applaud their efforts. I am not of that belief, but that's ok. I also do not consider your comments to be an angry rant, and I hope that my comments are not considered as hateful.

While I don't agree that we can't judge what is right and wrong with regards to love. I do agree that labeling others only builds walls between them. And that you miss a whole lot when you define someone solely based on their sexuality or any other life choice.

Good luck on your faith journey. And as Heather pointed out so well, it has everything to do with you and God and absolutely nothing to do with me or anyone else. :-)

Thu Jan 26, 04:06:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I I don't need to judge gay people God has already done that ie the Sodom and Gommorah destruction. I do need to love but can't condone or accept the life style. Sin is Sin no candy coating or room for error.
JO

Thu Jan 26, 04:51:00 PM  
Blogger Leslie said...

first of all kudos to everyone for making this a good conversation. Everyone is nice and no one has been called any names AND we are talking about hot button issues.

To the Sesame Steet thing. They are trying to relate to two different audiences. They are trying to design a program that mothers will sit down and watch with their children. Judging by the numbers of people that watch Desperate Housewives, it makes sense they might reference the show. I mean they arn't Veggie Tales. I do not think they are out to sexualize our children.

I don't think we gain anything by (and I don't think anyone here is doing this to a great degree, but I've seen other blogs that do.) constantly pointing out the evils of our culture. I believe we'd get more results--and less negative press--by pointing to those things within our culture that do glorify Christ and align with His agenda. Perhaps that is what Paul means when he says Whatever is good, whatever is noble, whatever is trustworthy . . . think on such things.

My children are not going to get the sexual innuendo, so if we did watch sesame street I'd not be that concerned. BUT, I do think that there is a place (such as this post right here) to consider this type of thing. I don't think we should be ignorant about it.

Tue Jan 31, 09:22:00 AM  
Blogger Luisa Perkins said...

Yikes. You stirred some folks up on that one.

It saddens me that Sesame Street, which was a dear companion to me when I was three and four, and which used to be quite educational and clever, has devolved to the point where it now seeks to 'educate' on social issues rather than on letters and numbers. Additionally, as you noticed, it panders to the 'politically correct,' media-saturated parents instead of trying to connect with the kids that are its purported audience.

Thu Mar 15, 01:41:00 PM  

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