Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The Berenstain Bears: a cautionary tale about teen pregnancy?

"The dad on the Berenstain Bears is SUCH a yokel," Primo observed on the walk to school yesterday. Apropos of nothing. I think the kid just likes finding reasons to use the word "yokel:" its one of his favorites.

"Yes, he is," I replied.

"I think the whole point of that series is to show kids they shouldn't have babies when they're teenagers." He was smiling, setting up a joke.

"What on earth are you talking about?" I asked.

"Well, the mom and dad were teenage parents and that's why they didn't get their college diplomas and so they don't have enough money to live in a regular house, which is why they have to live in the trees," he explained, cracking himself the hell up.

"All they do is lounge around all day making cherry pie and going fishing," he added disdainfully.

"Where did you even learn about the pitfalls of teenager parenthood?"

"On TV of course," he said, "Where i get ALL my information!"

I was about to tell him that HIS parents got college diplomas and a fat lot of good its done us but I decided that probably wasn't the right message to be sending.

So I just said,"We may need to cut back on your screen time. Like in the Berenstain Bears and Too Much TV."