Two mornings in a row now have I gotten angry whilst eating my breakfast and it didn’t have to do with the fact that the blueberries I bought were tasteless… No, I watch BBC breakfast while I eat, and both today and yesterday they have been talking about subjects that made me angry. Both had to do with “protecting our children”. Today it was about if homosexuality should be taught in schools at a young age or not, yesterday it was about parents thinking a children’s presenter born with only one hand was scary for children to watch.
I think it is sad how some people seem to want to want to protect their children to such extent that they think only “normal people” should be on TV or talked about in schools. What is a normal perosn anyway, is there such a thing?
The funny thing about kids is that often they are far more tolerant than what adults are anyway. They will ask questions straight out, as they are curious and often they will be happy with the answer and go on to other things. “Oh so uncle Pete lives with a man because he loves him and not a woman ok, now where is my lego”. It doesn’t really need to go on to be much more complicated than that. Once when I was shopping in Sainsbury’s this lady at the till was preaching to all her customers how bad homosexuality was and how dangerous it was for kids to hear about it, she started mouthing of about gay-porn and what have you, when I just wanted to buy my lunch and go away. I got so mad I complained to the store manger.
And when it comes to the thing yesterday, that just got me fuming. What is this? You don’t have all your limbs please don’t show yourself in public???! That is just like saying people in wheelchairs shouldn’t be seen either. Our society is filled with people in wheelchairs, people with missing arms and legs that live a “normal” life. Why should they not be represented on television too? The lady in question, Cerrie Burnell, was saying that kids are mostly fine with it, they will ask questions and then they will jump on to the next subject. I remember when I was about 4 years old, a man that had a hook instead of a hand, working at a petrol station where I grew up. I asked my dad if he was a pirate, as I had seen many pirate films. I also had a playmobil pirate ship where several of the pirate men had hooks instead of hands. My dad explained that no, he was not and then I was just fascinated by looking at him work the till with the hook. That was it, no more questions, I didn’t go away scared or scarred.
People all look different, they are different, some people are men that like men, some people are lacking body parts, children will know this, and if not they will learn this one day or another. Imagine children growing up so sheltered that when they come out to the real world that just won’t be able to cope with the sights and impressions. These are the kids that when they turn into adults still need their parents to buy them everything, wash their dirty clothing, feed them etc. That would be like if birds instead of pushing their young out if the nest decided to keep it in there and just feed it, eventually it would probably be so big it would break the nest, fall to the ground and not be able to walk or fly at all.
Of course we want to protect our children, but there is protection from important things like violence, and then there is protection for things YOU are scared of, but your kids would probably be fine about.
I intend on telling my child about my MS and I am sure that even if it is not an easy topic he/she’ll be able to deal with it. But all of these issues would of course be easier to talk about, if they were all out in the open to start with rather than treated like some dirty laundry by some people. This is what the world look like, deal with it!
xoxo
Hellie
*update*
I read a comment on that BBC page from someone called Sandy i think it is spot on,
“Her hand was hurt in an accident very badly. The doctor had to take it away. No it doesn’t hurt anymore.” What’s the problem? The parents, that’s what. If a child is concerned that a simple cut will lead to amputation – talk to them about it. That is the real nub of the problem here. Parents who want to avoid talking about anything more important than “look at that fluffy bunny”. I pity the children. What will these parents do when Granny dies? Tell the child she is on holiday?
Sandy, Derby, UK”
Tags: Cerrie Burnell, missing limbs, MS, Protecting our Children
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