Children, Violence, and Veggie Tales
This series of rambling questions is posted in the “why yes, I do have a toddler” category.
I am not a fan of violence and I try to prevent exposing my child to situations that model violence. That said, I have to wonder at some of the strategies to avoid exposing kids to violence and/or death, that take things (in my opinion at least) a bit too far. For example, I’ve had other parents freak out when I talk to Emma that the cute little cows and chickens at the zoo are like what we eat for dinner (apparently they didn’t want their kids to know that). And I once had a parent get upset because during a Children’s Church Easter lesson I told her elementary aged son that Jesus shed his blood on the cross and died. They were committed Christians, but she was appalled that I would mention the death of Jesus to children in church. I guess I was just supposed to stick to “safe” bible stories approved for children like Noah’s Ark and David and Goliath (sarcasm fully intended).
I was noticing this strange habit to shield children from death and violence the other day as I was watching Veggie Tales with Emma. Now I’ve been a fan of Veggie Tales for years (I did live in Wheaton during it’s heyday). On Friday nights when we weren’t studying, my friends and I would get together to watch Veggie Tale videos (aren’t you wishing you went to a Christian college too…). Anyway, what I noticed recently was the transformation over the years of the costumes for the Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything. In the original silly song by that name, Pa Grape sports a pirate hat complete with traditional skull and crossbones. 
But by the time those Pirates host the Silly Song countdown, the skull and crossbones have been replaced by a smiley face with an eyepatch (both can be observed in the video here). Then in the Jonah movie such references to real pirates have disappeared in favor of a tic-tac-toe game on the hat. The recent Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything movie (produced under new owners) returned to a design reminiscent of the skulls and crossbones but which uses a “P” and fork and knife.
Okay so perhaps I am a bit too obsessed with Veggie Tales, but I have to wonder what happened. Did Christian parents pressure them to remove the elements pertaining to death and violence? Veggie Tales has a history of giving into such parental pressure like when they changed the lyrics to “The Bunny Song.” Apparently parents didn’t like a song about idolatry that prompted kids to say they “don’t love my mom or my dad, just the bunny” or that they won’t go to church or school (the new version just mentions not eating soup and getting a tummy-ache from eating chocolate bunnies, it’s not nearly as catchy). Obviously the message is - children can’t understand idolatry and must be shielded from death and violence all the time.
Somedays I really don’t get it. We protect the kids by putting metal detectors in schools and refuse to let them wear multiple layers in class (for fear of hidden weapons). As a substitute teacher (who kept my winter coat on all day) I saw kids unable to hold pencils they were so cold and who stood outside in the sleet with no coat during a fire drill for over an hour. How did the rules protect these kids? Then there were the Chicago area police who recently had to escort an elderly Chinese man off a playground/park for practicing traditional exercises with short swords because (they said) it might be upsetting to people. Somewhat understandable, but then why are our parks and VFWs decorated with massive weaponry (tanks, bombers, cannons)?
Is there any standard? Do people have any clue what they are doing or what it is they are attempting to protect children from? When have we gone too far in the sheltering of children? Is refusing to talk about blood or bones or where or food comes from a deception on the level of Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy? Would we rather tell our kids lies about the world than introduce them to reality (in loving and appropriate ways of course)? Somedays I just have too many questions. Maybe I just need to stop watching Veggie Tales.
Julie Clawson
February 7th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Hi!
I’ve lurked around your blog a bit until now.
I have a soon to be 3 year old. Nemo and Cars are about as benign as can be - except for the car crashes where cars beat each other up that are really “people” to the kids, oh and the shark, and how every Disney movie seems to revolve around the death of a parent, etc.
You do watch these differently when you are a parent, but I always have to think back to my youth. I loved Warner Bros. cartoons. The centered on a hunter looking to “Kill the Wabbit” and a Coyote chasing a bird with missles and explosives that came from Acme - a store like K-Mart with mail order at one point.
My theory is that we fear media too much and avoid the things that we support anyway by being consumers of the products they exist to market, but we are clearly not diligent to teach our kids the value of being critical consumers.
This is related to a rant to which I often succumb and that is the wealthiest consumers have a tendency to see school as a function of ROI - teach my kid how to be a good kid because it’s your job. I have seen the seat of values instruction not in the household in too many situations. I cannot say it is normative, but it seems to be all to prevalent.
So my son now laughs at Bruce and his recovering fish-eaters. It was scary at first until he realized that they did not mean to hurt Dory. But we talked with him through it just as we talk with him after he wakes from a bad dream. Kids are consuming a lot of these bad dreams with no one there to help them decode the signs they consume and thereby create lenses of reality. One of the best educational tools we can use with our kids is discernment as a function of literacy among multiple mediums. Litigation and seclusion really do nothing to help our kids when they leave the nest.
And There were no ‘cars’ killed during the drafting of this comment
February 7th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Hiya, I’ve been lurking for awhile too. I’d tend to place this within the wider phenomenon of the growing fawning over and overprotection of children, not just from violence and death but from darn well near everything.
I don’t have kids yet, but it seems that parents of a certain race and class have the luxury of devoting enormous amounts of time and money to their whelplets. There was a piece on NPR awhile ago about ‘helicopter parents’ who interfere in their children’s lives even into college, phoning up professors to negotiate grades, choosing roommates, and so forth.
I see it as a class phenomenon because this sort of thing really is the result of disposable time and money. And the desire to protect children from unpleasantness is itself probably a middle-class instinct. I worry about the future of an entitled, white middle-class generation shielded from real life and unable to be independent adults.
February 8th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Julie, this reminds me of another C.S. Lewis quote (surprise!):
“Those who say that children must not be frightened may mean two things. They may mean (1) that we must not do anything likely to give the child those haunting, disabling, pathological fears against which ordinary courage is helpless: in fact, phobias. His mind must, if possible, be kept clear of things he can’t bear to think of. Or they may mean (2) that we must try to keep out of his mind the knowledge that he is born into a world of death, violence, wounds, adventure, heroism and cowardice, good and evil.
If they mean the first I agree with them: but not if they mean the second. The second would indeed be to give children a false impression and feed them on escapism in the bad sense. There is something ludicrous in the idea of so educating a generation which is born to the Ogpu [Secret State Police in the USSR, forerunner to the KGB] and the atomic bomb.
Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker. Nor do most of us find that violence and bloodshed, in a story, produce any haunting dread in the minds of children. As far as that goes, I side impenitently with the human race against the modern reformer. Let there be wicked kings and beheadings, battles and dungeons, giants and dragons, and let villains be soundly killed at the end of the book. Nothing will persuade me that this causes an ordinary child any kind or degree of fear beyond what it wants, and needs, to feel. For, of course, it wants to be a little frightened.”
February 8th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I hadn’t noticed that about the “Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything”. Good observation and thoughtful reflection.
February 8th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
great post
February 8th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
[…] Children, Violence, and Veggie Tales – this first link is a blog by Julie Clawson at Onehandclapping. I have read Julie’s blog from the sidelines off and on for a year now and she has often challenged me and stretched my thinking. I really enjoy reading her blog and thought this blog in particular was worth sharing today. […]
February 8th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
My wife had a college roommate who would sing the Veggie Tales song “Where Is My Hairbrush?” every time she couldn’t find her brush. Since that painful era all reference to Veggie Tales have been received with… mmmmm… a lack of enthusiasm in our family. Can ya blame her? =)
February 8th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
“(I did live in Wheaton during it’s heyday)”
Like living in Chicago during the Bulls great championship run… which, I guess, is about the same time.
My first exposure to Veggie Tales was in Wheaton. Well, it was at Wheaton, in a class. For whatever reason that I didn’t bother to ask, one fine morning the professor came out onto the stage in the big lecture room in Armerding. He told us he had a change of pace for us. And for the rest of the geology 101 class we watched Veggie Tales.
Cream of the crop in action.
February 8th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Julie, I hadn’t noticed the changes, although my kids are past Veggie tales. As a pre-school teacher I play the videos, but don’t pay attention.
As a mom, I have often said that if I could get away with it my kids would live in a bubble where nothing could hurt them. I tend to be protective, but those tough subjects such as death, or whatever have given my husband and I great opportunity to have disscusions with our kids about hard subjects. When my daughter was in the 5th grade a class mate died in a car accident. I can’t imagine how she would have dealt with that if we weren’t open and ready to face it with her. I want to protect my kids and shield them from hurtful or painful things, but I also want them to be emotionally ready to face the evils of the real world.
February 9th, 2008 at 8:00 am
Ha - Veggie Tales in college - they can be like a psychedelic drug!!
Christian parents can sometimes shield their kids too much - having kids that think the world is perfect does not well-rounded grown-up make. I don’t enjoy that my kids have to know evil is in the world but I do find it a privilege and opportunity to have those discussions with them, as they process what is going on.
February 9th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
wow - a lot to respond to…
Karl - thanks for the quote, I like the spirit of it.
John - let me tell you, I could very well do with never having to hear the “pirates who don’t do anything” song ever again… but I fear I have years to go before that day arrives.
Drew - there are a number of movies that scare Emma and she asks us to turn off. Sometimes she wants to talk about them, other times no. She is very timid at times and a lot of things scare her. She just turned three and I think it would be foolish to push her in some of these areas. But sheltering her forever is not my goal either. I was like that as a child and I still vividly recall where my parents pushed me too early. Since I was(am) tall I reached the minimum height to ride the Six Flags Roller Coaster at a really young age and my parents made me do it. I cried the whole time and to this day HATE roller coasters. Similarly my dad started reading the Narnia books to me when I was three. I did okay until we reached The Horse and His Boy, but the scene in the desert of them being chased by a lion gave me nightmares. He put the series aside for another year or so at that point…
Cody - I agree, a lot of this has to do with economic status. As bad as helicopter parenting is, I think it’s worse that some parents don’t have the means to protect their children. When a person’s income determines if they have to live where their children see violence everyday, or if the kid has to work in a sweatshop, or if they get sold into sex slavery to pay of the parent’s medical debt there are serious things wrong in the world. Its messed up that we freak out about kids seeing skulls and crossbones or knowing where the food on our table comes from and there are kids around the world who are forced to witness their mothers raped and slaughtered.
February 14th, 2008 at 2:30 am
[…] On Violence and Veggie Tales […]
February 16th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Hey!
My good friend Ariah linked to your site, so I dropped by b/c of the interesting title, and also because I have a friend who works at Big Idea. And because of that, I’ll just add a little bit of inside information. I don’t know all the specifics, but there are quite a few things that are controlled by the owners (or producing company, like Universal in the most recent Pirates movie…where they made Pa Grape wear spectacles full time because otherwise they thought he looked too scary. ??) and Big Idea has no choice in the matter.
Again, I don’t know for sure, but I have a feeling that’s why there’s a fork and spoon in place of crossbones. Keen eye, though, I hadn’t noticed it either.
But this question comes up a lot with homeschooling, right? Like, do people protect our kids too much when they home school? I don’t remember who it was above, but someone talked about a scary movie and mentioned how she’d talked about it with her kids. I think that’s key…that we’re having conversation with our kids. Whether it’s sex, violence, or death…certainly parents must have some sort of influence on what’s viewed, but we mustn’t refrain from conversation on those difficult subjects. And if entertainment is the only way kids have exposure to it (which it’s not) then bring back the skull and crossbones!
(I’m not a parent yet. So of course nothing I say really matters when I talk about kids. heheh But I will say that my wife and I do plan on severely limiting our kids’ TV time. Not because of this issue, to keep them away from violence, but because I think TV’s horrible for other reasons…for all of us.
But that’s another topic.)