Together We Can Do A Million Great Things

[karmasoup]

LET’S DREAM

“The Island of Sodor is surrounded by beautiful blue sea.  It has fields of green, and sandy, yellow beaches; there are rivers, streams, and lots of trees where birds sing; as well as windmills, a coal mine, docks where visitors arrive, and a profusion of railway lines...” 
...that carry anthropomorphic, sentient train engines into

Comments

[rayaso]

This was very thoughtful, and brought back a lot of memories of reading to our children. Our son loved Thomas the Tank Engine. Halfshell made a marvelous Thomas birthday cake and fantastic Halloween costume. He spent hours with the trains and tracks. It was a good time.

[karmasoup]

We will probably have to come up with a Thomas birthday cake at some point... maybe even this year, since he won't see any friends or family or have any sort of a party other than with the two of us and his dogs.

[halfshellvenus]

This is the Thomas birthday cake I made our son. It has some regular cake decorations, like the fence, bridge, and trees. There are also gummy fish and cars, farm playset horses, a paper barn, and I'm not sure whether that's his real Thomas engine on the bridge or not? I used to put actual toys on the cakes, but usually standing on one of the plastic pieces (like the bridge), or on a sheet of fruit leather, or (for Legos and such), on top of plastic drinking straw piecees embedded in the cake. To keep them from getting too much frosting on them, basically. :)

[halfshellvenus]

The first Thomas episode I saw was one our nephew was watching,a nd I was completely creeped out by the trains' faces and their rolling eyes. :O

[d0gs]

I was completely creeped out by the trains' faces and their rolling eyes. :O ahaha I find them so funny, but ngl I can seriously see why some would have this reaction too!!

[karmasoup]

I actually refer to those older classic episodes as "the creepy Thomas," too. I think when you're very tiny, that sort of thing is pretty neat, but you likely grow out of it pretty quickly... Firebird did. If you watch the embedded video, that's the level of production quality he prefers these days, and me too... much easier on the eyes, and also, some of those older storylines were boring and more... questionable.

[halfshellvenus]

Haha-- I'm glad it's not just me!

I did peek at that video, and it was still kind of creepy to me. :O

[d0gs]

I loved this :D I love Thomas the Tank Engine still - the faces make me laugh so much!

[karmasoup]

Thanks. :-)

[encrefloue]

This was such a wonderful deep dive into children's programming and how often it fails us as a reliable metric, mirror, and mentor of core societal values.

I so respect the lengths you go to to protect, nurture, and echo Firebird's joy and wonder. As a kid, I was really drawn in by the subversive end of the spectrum, but that's certainly age-sensitive; there is something quite sad about feeling jaded at a young age.

That's really appalling (mis)representation that you described in Paw Patrol. It's a painful shame that no one on that creative team had the wherewithal to question the damaging, racist overtones they're propagating to the youngest of audiences. Loathsome. I do feel like now, ethical, healthy, and nuanced representation of people of color is increasingly demanded by consumer audiences, but I can imagine that it all must still feel like a minefield to gingerly guide your son through. It sounds like you're doing it with grace and aplomb! Keep singing, Mama! :D

[karmasoup]

Thank you so much for the positive reassurance. I know people in general can (and should!) be firmly committed to their convictions without requiring feedback from others, but it’s still validating to receive

[encrefloue]

That's far from silly-your feelings are not only valid, but also I am sure that they are shared with so many other betrayed, crestfallen fans. What could be dismissed as negligence at first was proven to be blatant malfeasance. I mean, come on. Only three PoCs in the whole universe, and they happen to be the big bad wolves? Disgusting. It would be one thing if their world was filled with diverse characters-we could see that anyone of any appearance could be heroes, friends, family members, love interests, and yes, even villains. But in a white-washed world where every now and then a PoC comes along to be vanquished by the noble protagonist? It's unconscionable

[karmasoup]

Thank you so much for sharing that with me... I look forward to checking it out!

What made me cry about this was not that the makers had done this. I do hold them accountable, and I do harbor resentment for the choices made here. What my heart ached over was realizing, as a business decision, in many respects, one could perceive marketers just giving this disgusting population what it wants... to call out brown skinned folks as evil. To keep them behind a wall. To lock them in cages. To ban them from traveling here. I wept for the destruction of a land I once loved, and I experience "Hiraeth" to know that land no longer exists, and, in part, to wonder if it ever did.

[flipflop_diva]

This was really interesting. Ellie's only 18 months so the only thing we put on for her right now are little nursery rhyme things on youtube (which really do have a horrible lack of diversity in them) so she can dance to the music. But the time is approaching that she is probably going to want to watch actual shows.

I actually didn't know any of that about Paw Patrol. I've seen merchandise everywhere but I've never really known any of the details of what it consists of. So, yikes.

This was all really thought-provoking.

[karmasoup]

Thank you so much being willing to give it thought! <3

For diversity in children’s nursery rhymes, I highly recommend Cocomelon

But a quick search for “diverse nursery rhymes” also turned up these:

The Learning Station

Little BoBo

...I realize some of these aren’t the old familiar nursery rhymes we grew up with that we already know, but learning them well enough to sing along your with your child can be quite fulfilling, and even more incredibly rewarding when you find her singing along!

(There’s also Fraggles and Splash and Bubbles for entertaining song-heavy programs you can put on without having to worry what she’s being taught... Jim Henson, that sweet old hippie, was as much if not more about peace and love and kindness as Mr. Rogers! ;-)

Also, if you want lullaby versions of classic songs you already know… there’s always the Babies Go variations...

Babies Go Beatles

Babies Go Queen

...no matter your taste in music:

Babies go Guns N' Roses

Babies Go Metallica...among many others, etc