I have a confession to make: I let all 4 of my children, ages 15, 13, 11, and 8, watch the show Glee on television.
I can almost hear the shocked silence out there. I know that many parents choose not to expose their kids to a show they find potentially inappropriate.
The thing is, I don’t find it inappropriate. At all. My kids have learned things from watching Glee that they could never learn at home.
Let me back up. For most of my life I have been a passionate advocate for “the underdog.” Discrimination or prejudice of any kind is the one thing in this world that makes me want to explode, or possibly move to some huge city, where no one cares what color you are or what religion you are or who you are attracted to.
When my kids started to be old enough to understand, I started talking to them about how in our family, we love everybody. People are people, and all are equal. We are not better than anyone else because of whatever advantages we may have, nor is anyone else better than us.
We live in a suburb of New York city, where most kids live in single-family houses with a mom and dad, where most dads go to work and many moms stay home. We are fortunate to live here and I am grateful that my kids are growing up in such a nice community. However, there is a “sameness” to living in the suburbs that concerns me. I often worry that by living here, we have traded a house and a yard and a prime public education system for the real world. A world where there are many differences between people.
So one thing I do is, I let my kids watch Glee. And in so doing, I am not just letting them be entertained by music and dancing and Sue Sylvester.
I am exposing them to a diverse crew of humans who are just like us. Except that in many cases, they are different.
Kurt and Blaine are the first gay couple my kids have been exposed to. I am so pleased at the example they are setting, with a healthy, loving, warm relationship.
My 8-year-old, Jamie, said the sweetest thing after watching Kurt and Blaine sing “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” to each other this past holiday season. “Kurt and Blaine love each other,” he said simply. The word “Gay” is not yet a part of his vocabulary. All he knows is that these two human beings are in love. It is not strange to him, as it would have been to me at that age, since I only watched Happy Days and The Brady Bunch.
I could go on and on with examples, but I won’t, except to say that the “Born This Way” episode, with the theme of self-acceptance, was one of the best things I have ever seen on television. Each character in the Glee club learns to love, or at least openly accept, one thing they don’t like about themselves. Brown eyes, big nose, stupid, can’t sing, four eyes…who doesn’t have something about themselves that they’d like to change?
That’s why I let my kids watch Glee. It exposes them to a bigger world where all types of kids, kids who know they are different, are openly struggling to accept themselves. And I’m hoping it’s making my kids realize that whatever they might be struggling with, they are not alone.
I absolutely adore Glee, this post, and your thoughtful reasons.
I’ll be following your footsteps in a few years!
I love Glee myself, but I wouldn’t let my just-turned-7yo daughter watch it. I completely agree with your reasons as to why it’s great, but it’s the sexual content that I think isn’t appropriate for younger kids. Almost all the teenagers on the show are sexually active, and it’s definitely portrayed as the norm (those who aren’t having sex wish they were!). It would be great to have some characters who choose NOT to have sex, and have this portrayed as a positive and not entirely dorky choice. Obviously lots of high school kids do it, but I don’t want my kids to see that portrayed as the only choice. Lots of kids didn’t when I was in school, and that was pretty much accepted as ok. Maybe when she’s a year or two older I’ll feel differently!
Beautiful essay. You must be an awesome mother.
While your end goal is admirable and you seem like an overall good and caring Mom I found this post sad in many ways. First you are wanting a TV show to teach your kids these valuable life lessons? They can learn this from you without watching a highly sexualized not age-appropriate TV show. And while the show is fantastic (I love it) it is entirely inappropriate for 8 and 11 year olds – why in the world would you expose your young kids to that much sexuality? Gay or not it doesn’t matter. (maybe fine for your older ones but Jen makes the excellent point that it makes it seem that being sexually active in HS in the norm and the goal).
We live in a suburb and if you see too much ‘sameness’ you may not have taken the time to get to know many of your neighbors – same on the outside is not same on the inside and our neighbors have varied backgrounds, cultures, struggles, insecurities, successes, underdogs, top dogs, sickness, hard times, good times, etc. I will agree many suburbs lack economic diversity but not sure where Glee is going to fill that void.
The part that bothered me the most was when you said “I don’t find it inappropriate. At all” – really? I have never heard a parent who lets their kids (teenagers) watch it say this – they say things like ‘I flinch at some parts but overall it’s okay and a good show” etc – for you to watch Glee and not think it is not AT ALL inappropriate for an 8 year is surprising to say the least.
You seem like a good Mom with depth and compassion but I whole-heartedly disagree with you on this one.
I just got into glee LOL. They have season one on netflix and I have been watching episode after episode and got season 2 disc 1 in the mail to watch when I finish season 1. So addicted to that show LOL.
That being said, I don’t let my kids watch it (11, 7, 5). A bit too much for them and too many mature topics.