November 28, 2005 10:43 PM
No Mr. Rogers fans here
Note to Mr. Rogers fans - Please read comments below for the sake of balance :) And whatever you do, don't take it seriously! :) :)
I recently bought Daniel a Mr. Rogers DVD.
While in my old hippie days I thought Mr. Rogers was boring, since so much about me has so radically changed since then, I’m very willing to rethink my counterculture opinions. So when I saw that someone had reissued Mr. Rogers on DVD all I could think of was Daniel who gets so wound up and hyper when watching even Veggie Tales.
I thought that seeing Mr. Rogers take off his jacket and put on his sweater and take off his shoes and put on his slippers might have some sort of hypnotic effect on Daniel and he would finally experience nirvana.
But he didn’t. And I still found Mr. Rogers unnecessarily boring. His puppets looked like they’d been dragged from a dumpster, and as Tripp pointed out, their accents were hilarious – each one from a different region of the country.
So last night, Josh and I were watching Actors’ Studio on A&E (love that show but am too busy to watch it most of the time) when I noticed the Mr. Rogers DVD and mentioned my failed plan to Josh.
“I didn’t like Mr. Rogers,” Josh said. “One time he made a big bowl of popcorn and he was eating it and talking about how good it was and then he held out some toward the TV screen and said, ‘Mmmm. This popcorn is so good I just wish I could give you some.’ That made me so mad that he said that and didn’t give me any!”
Like I’ve said many times, we have no idea how kids think. I know we were kids once ourselves, but we must have forgotten.
So tonight, driving Sophia and Maddy to rehearsal, I was telling them the story and Sophia said, “Yeah, Mr. Rogers was always doing stuff like that. [she sounded like he was diabolical in this] And he took For. Ever. To. Do. Anything.”
“I just thought he was boring,” Maddy piped up from the back.
So there you have it. Maybe all my previous opinions weren’t worthless. Even though he was a nice guy with good intentions, maybe Mr. Rogers really wasn’t all that.
Comments
That is so funny that your entire family has similar feelings about Mister Rogers. His show was one of the few I was allowed to watch growing up, and he has always had a special place in my heart. I, too, have ordered the dvds, and my sixteen month old daughter loves them. He lived an extraordinary life, and if anyone is interested, The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers by Amy Hollingsworth is a great book that describes more about the faith behind the man. I will say, however, that Mister Rogers did move at a rate somewhat slower than molasses. He even wrote a song about it, "I Like to Take My Time." :)
Posted by: Carrie | November 28, 2005 11:37 PM
Carrie -
I'm glad you added this comment - and thanks for still speaking to me! I know he was an excellent man of faith, and I should have taken the time to add that.
Don't know why he doesn't appeal to my kids - maybe they're too literal. They're all very extroverted also and this is a fast-paced family.
Posted by: barbaracurtis | November 29, 2005 6:47 AM
I liked Mr Rogers as an adult. I appreciate his molasses-quality and when he would show different types of people at different types of work places.
Have you considered Captain Kangaroo for Daniel? How about Moody has some dvds that have soothing praise music accompanying beautiful images of nature...seascapes, mountain, snow falling, animals...My grandmother, who is in her 90s, enjoys putting those on while she crochets on nights she can't sleep.
Posted by: floorplan | November 29, 2005 9:51 AM
I think my attraction to Mr Rogers growing up was that he was a sweet old man. Since I had no male influences what-so-ever, I think I found his television presence in our home comforting.
Posted by: paigeu | November 29, 2005 11:26 AM
Like I said, thanks for still speaking to me!
Posted by: barbaracurtis | December 2, 2005 5:58 AM
Our family loves Mr. Rogers, even as they get older. I find his voice to be so peaceful and calming. We got his cd's to listen to, and sometimes I like listening to them even when the kids are not around. How's that for weird? ;)
Posted by: Kim (Coffee and a Muffin) | December 3, 2005 2:07 PM
