Last week I was spending some quality time with Facebook while the kids were watching The Cat in the Hat on PBS. And for about the 800th time I thought to myself that this show bugged me more than a little bit. So I thought I’d throw it out there and see if anyone else felt the same way.

“Am I the only one who finds the Cat in the Hat extremely creepy?”

I went on to describe exactly what it was about this show that bothered me. It’s really something which has always bothered me about not just the show but the book as well.

The whole concept, really, is a bit strange – there is a giant talking cat (or is it a man in a cat costume?) asking kids to go on adventures with him. “You’re mother will not mind at all if you do!”

Notice he doesn’t actually say “Ask your mom” and in my opinion, the mom clearly has no idea her children are actually going anywhere – it’s obvious she thinks they are just pretending. If she knew there was really a giant man cat outside trying to take her kids to the jungle of kalamodoon or whatever, I’m pretty sure she’d call the cops.

With all our emphasis in society on “don’t talk to strangers” and “don’t get into cars with strangers” it kind of bugs me that this show has the kids getting into the thingamajigger with him, no questions asked and the parents have clearly never met him.

That night I talked to my husband about it and he agreed that it bothered him, too ; and we decided we didn’t want the kids watching it anymore since it undermines an important lesson that we’ve been trying to teach MM in particular who is very friendly and trusting by nature.

I thought I had this all figured out and was feeling pretty proud of myself until I sat down with MM to let him know the bad news (about one of his favorite tv shows by the way). I told him that we didn’t want him watching it anymore and he immediately looked crestfallen. “Why not?” he of course wanted to know.

And despite all my yammering to myself and Dan I realized how unprepared I was for the conversation – but I muscled through it and explained in my best kid speak all the issues I felt the show was undermining.

And as I began attempting to explain our reasoning I realized that this wasn’t what I wanted either. When a show or a movie or a book presents a concept I don’t agree with – do I really want my solution to be “don’t let the kids see it!” Should we shield them from every opinion or issue that troubles us?

Or should we let this be a teaching opportunity – a chance to say, “You know it bothers me that the Cat in the Hat never asks the kids’ parents himself if they can go somewhere with him.” And “Do you think the Cat in the Hat has met their parents or maybe has dinner with them sometimes. Does this make him a stranger?” And then open this up to discussion and make sure that our kids understand WHY talking to strangers is bad and what makes someone a stranger in the first place.

I want MM to avoid talking to strangers because he gets why it’s dangerous and knows better and values his own safety – not just because mom said no. And I think that he is capable of learning this lesson AND watching an educational show on PBS that maybe toes the line a bit on this topic but is otherwise harmless.

So again the hubby and I talked about it and he somewhat reluctantly agreed that I was right. It’s not the easy solution, but I do think it’s the smart one. I think that by banning a show cold turkey that we are passing up an opportunity to really teach our kids – and also telling them that we don’t think they are capable of understanding the lessons to be learned there.

So in the end, I told him that the next time he watches The Cat in the Hat that I’d like to watch it with him so we can talk about it. Which obviously thrilled him.

I know this will not be the last conversation we have on the topic of strangers and it won’t be the last tv show that I’ll need to make a decision like this about (it will certainly be the most harmless of the bunch!) but it really showed me a side to my parenting values that I hadn’t fully tested yet and I’m glad I did. I hope this prepares me for the tougher issues we’ll face in the future as the kids get older and the topics get harder.

What tv shows do your kids love that you can’t stand or maybe have issues with the subject matter? How do you handle this?