Give Children's Media Its Due

Okay, as anyone who knows me would be all-too aware of, I have an obsession with (good) children's media (i.e. TV shows, movies, books, music), especially that which I actually enjoyed as a child.  Call me weird or a baby if you want, but there can be a depth and profoundness hidden beneath the silly songs and simple sentences.  Example: "Little Bear and the Wind" (on the 90s-00s Nick Jr. show "Little Bear")  Little Bear is trying to sleep, but the very windy, stormy night is causing all sorts of spooky noises that keep him from doing so.  So, he wanders out of his room and over to Mother Bear's.  When she's not there, he continues looking and finds her knitting in the living room.  As he sees her from the back, we see her from the front, and a crash of thunder rings out.  She looks up from her knitting with a worried look on her face (Little Bear doesn't see this).  He approaches her and tells her that he's scared.  To calm Little Bear's fears, Mother Bear tells him a story about how Father Bear, who is a fisherman and currently away working, "knows" the wind and his tricks and can get through even the worst storms.  She even says that he rescued other sailors in peril.  The story comforts Little Bear and even thrills him, so what Mother Bear set out to do worked.  But, do you see another reason why she told that story?  I do.  The worried look.  Remember?  There is a storm going on, and Father Bear is out on the ocean.  She's worried about him.  She didn't just tell that story to reassure Little Bear.  She told that story to reassure herself.  I see that now.  I see all sorts of things like that now.  Have you ever seen anything like that?