Talking to children is scary

Have I mentioned how often I think "Wow, people are idiots"? Well, it's often.

According to this article from CNN.com, the BBC is receiving complaints about a new host on one of its children's programs. The host, Cerrie Burnell, whose right arm stops below her elbow. People are apparently complaining that this one-and-a-half-armed woman is "scaring their children." A quote from the article:

In one chat room, a father lamented that Burnell being on the show forced him to have conversations with his child about disabilities.

Now, those of you who know me a little, what do you suppose I'm going to say? Say it with me now, everyone together: DON'T WATCH THE SHOW, THEN.

But aside from that obvious nugget of wisdom, what the hell makes people so scared of talking to their children? First of all, are people who spawn kidlings unaware of the fact that there are certain talks that they simply cannot avoid having with their children? For those of you who are about to argue that the dad in the quote simply wants to be able to choose the right time and place, nope, nope, zip it! Let me refer you, first of all, back to the "DON'T WATCH THE SHOW!" golden rule, but also remind you that people with disabilities exist on subways and in stores and in the schools that his children attend and generally out in the world all over the place. Is he going to ask them to hide themselves from his kids as well? "Well, yes, sir, it's true that I have no legs and therefore ride the subway because it's just a wee bit easier than driving a car, but I feel so gosh darn sorry for YOU and YOUR dilemma that I'll just try to make sure I take the 9:06 instead of the 9:12 in the future, how's that?"

The bottom line, though, is really just this: what is so difficult about talking to your kids about disabilities? About sex? About the fact that there are bad people in the world? Why is it that parents seem to feel the best thing for their children is to pretend these things don't exist -- sometimes indefinitely, or sometimes to the point of expecting the kids' schools to take care of those nasty little issues for them -- rather than just sitting and having a normal conversation? What are they afraid could go wrong? Are they afraid that they might not explain everything exactly perfectly and that the kid might not grasp the concept entirely?

For Pete's sake, so what? Believe me, I'm a teacher, I'm familiar with the idea of a kid not grasping a concept entirely. Guess what? They live. And you have a chance to answer their questions and explain again the next day.

Since both my sister and I are the product of artificial insemination by anonymous donor, I'm familiar with being on the child's side of a concept that is truly difficult for a child to grasp. One of the few things my parents managed to be smart about during my upbringing was attempting to explain this to me from the very beginning. Guess what? I didn't quite get it right away. I thought I was a robot, actually, that was the interpretation I ended up with. (This is partially because my parents barely seemed to understand the science behind the whole thing themselves, quite frankly, but I digress.) But guess what? I was all like, "AWESOME, I'm a robot. I ROCK." I somehow survived until the next attempt at explaining and the next attempt, and eventually I understood what it was all about. I was admittedly a little bit bummed over not being a robot anymore, but dude, it was fun while it lasted.

No, I have another theory. I think that the reason parents don't like broaching so-called difficult subjects with their children is because they're embarrassed about it, and in two -- no, wait, maybe three -- different ways. The first is that they're simply too prudish to talk about sex or disabilities or mean nasty people without blushing. The second is that they're afraid their kids are going to go to pre-school or wherever and says "MY DADDY HAS A PENIS AND MY MOMMY HAS A VAGINA!" (the problem therefore ACTUALLY being too much of a wuss to talk to other PARENTS about difficult subjects). The third is that they might even feel that their own knowledge on the topic is lacking enough that they wouldn't be able to explain it to someone else.

My answers to that? Suck it up, suck it up, and blame your own parents for a vicious cycle.