Have you watched the show The Wire? One of my brother’s friends says it’s “the greatest work of art ever made”. He adds: “I am not even kidding.” But I’m one episode into it, and mostly it seems to be about swearing. If you’ve watched it, tell me: how long did it take for you to know if you liked it or not?
You see how on the main page of Milk & Cookies each post cuts off partway through, and you have to click to read more? My mom wants that on her Blogger blog but can’t find a way to do it. I poked around, but I don’t even know what to call that “click to see all of it” thing, except in the context of feed readers where it’s called a partial feed, and that’s not what she wants. She wants a full-feed, but her posts are really long so she wants only the first part of each one to show on her main page, rather than having her main page be a million miles long.
When I was little, my parents severely limited our TV/movie watching. This turned us into clueless little weirdos, in my opinion. Social interaction among children is like social interaction among adults: adults talk about TV shows and movies they’ve watched, and so do children. This doesn’t mean I’m going to force-feed the kids every violent/inappropriate show their peers are allowed to watch, but it does mean I want them to have general cultural literacy in the things their peers know about. But! How do I know what their peers know about? I don’t! And so I am asking you: what do boys in the age 7-10 range watch? Last I checked, it was The Smurfs. So I need an update, stat!
We weren’t allowed to watch any TV eiither, or listen to “rock music.” If I was at a birthday party and there was a movie being shown above a G rating, I had to leave the room. This all lasted until my parents got a divorce when I was in the sixth grade, and to this day if anyone references a band, movie, or tv show from that time, I have no idea what they’re talking about. I always just tell people I had an Amish childhood. – but I do feel strangely cheated. I have the feeling I’ll be swinging too far in the other direction with my kids. I ‘ll be the mom forcing them to go to some craptacular Hannah Montana concert when they want to stay home and build a terrarium or do some nerdy something or other.
The Wire is honestly the BEST show I’ve ever seen (and I tend to prefer things like The Office, Amazing Race, Project Runway, etc – I’m not really into heavy dramas). It took me a few episodes to get past the swearing and the blood (there will be lots more blood to come, as well as some not-so-subtle sex scenes) the story is just freaking FANTASTIC. There’s a lot to follow, but it’s worth it. Once you’re a couple episodes in, you’ll be hooked. Stick with it!!
My 9 and 11 y.o. boys like Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, and a variety of shows on the Food Channel. 11 y.o. likes all things sports. 9 y.o. likes
iCarly, Drake and Josh, Wizards of Waverly Place and lots of stupid cartoons that I would stop if it didn’t seem pretty benign. They are just pointless. I try to be in the same room, but when those shows are on I have to get out or tune out. While maintaining motherly watchful eye and ear, of course. Mostly at our house we want the shows they watch to limit violence (very much limited) and disrespectful relationships/communication. Well, and also time on the tube/computer in general. 11 y.o. would stay on the computer all day, given the opportunity, and 9 y.o. would sit in front of the tube all day if allowed.
Ok, I just had this coversation on Monday about what to let kids watch.
IMO, ALL Disney movies are inapporpriate for little kids. The 3-6 year old that watch the don’t need to see death (Simba’s dad getting TRAMPLED TO DEATH etc). BUT, I also was not allowed to watch much and I WAS lost with my peers. SO, therefore I do allow my kids to watch “normal for their age” kids stuff. I don’t introduce them to new stuff (like Hannah Montana- they don’t even know her name yet, and they are 5, well within the “range” for her), but when they start asking, I’ll probably allow it.
As you said, they need to be literate in what their peers are doing… I hated not knowing what everyone was talking about. I felt so left out.
(I won’t allow something I’m morally against, or something I feel WILDLY inappropriate, etc. But I’ll turn my gaze away from things that are more minor and let them be kids in the year 2008. I’m a SELL OUT, I know!)
Anyway, after all of THAT, I don’t know what boys are watching.
I am sooooo unhelpful!
I don’t know if I have ever seen that “see more” thing on a blogger blog — maybe only on Typepad?
My 6 year old is ALL OVER Disney Channel, but she’s a girl.
Add me to the “huh, not so much helpful” list, I guess!
I’ll be interested to hear about The Wire, too. Dennis Lehane is one of the writers, and I love his mystery novels, but I’ve never watched the show.
The boys we know like Spongebob (bleah), Star Wars, and Power Rangers. Also, Man vs. Wild.
Try this for the answer to #2, put these tags:
[left angle bracket]span class=”fullpost”[right angle bracket][left angle bracket]/span[right angle bracket]
around the part of the blog post that your mom doesn’t want to show up. For example, after the first paragrpah or two put [left angle bracket]span class=”fullpost”[right angle bracket] and then at the end of the post put the closing span tag like this [left angle bracket]/span[right angle bracket]. I *think* that will work.
I completely agree with you re: the TV thing, but I don’t know what 7-10 y.o. boys watch.
I simply cannot watch The Wire. Cannot stomach it. My husband loved it and watched every single episode. Thankfully it’s over now. I don’t disagree that it was artful television. But it was damn depressing. I could not stand to see those gang kids killing each other and the hopelessness of that city.
I have no answers for you on the other two, though.
i was a secluded little weirdo, too! to this day, at nearly-28, people are STILL appalled when they find out i’ve never seen an episode of growing pains, or, say, ANY MOVIE released between 1980-1995 that was rated higher than pg13. and, uh, tons of movies that were, and i still never saw them.
Have your mom try this:
Right before the text she wants to be “hidden” (meaning people need to click a link to see the rest of the entry), type:
left caret!–text–right caret
(I have to spell it out this way, otherwise the computer thinks I’m trying to do something with the formatting.)
So to reiterate:
1. Type the left caret (the symbol next to the letter M on the keyboard).
2. Type an exclamation point.
3. Type two dashes.
4. Type your text (can be anything). This is the word that will show up as the link that people can click on to read the rest of the entry. Something like “Click here” or “more.”
5. Type two dashes again.
6. Type the right caret (The key right next to the question mark).
NOTE: There are NO spaces between any of this.
Hope this helps!
Have your mom try this:
Right before the text she wants to be “hidden” (meaning people need to click a link to see the rest of the entry), type:
left caret!–text–right caret
(I have to spell it out this way, otherwise the computer thinks I’m trying to do something with the formatting.)
So to reiterate:
1. Type the left caret (the symbol next to the letter M on the keyboard).
2. Type an exclamation point.
3. Type two dashes.
4. Type your text (can be anything). This is the word that will show up as the link that people can click on to read the rest of the entry. Something like “Click here” or “more.”
5. Type two dashes again.
6. Type the right caret (The key right next to the question mark).
NOTE: There are NO spaces between any of this.
Hope this helps!
Have your mom try this:
Right before the text she wants to be “hidden” (meaning people need to click a link to see the rest of the entry), type:
left caret!–text–right caret
(I have to spell it out this way, otherwise the computer thinks I’m trying to do something with the formatting.)
So to reiterate:
1. Type the left caret (the symbol next to the letter M on the keyboard).
2. Type an exclamation point.
3. Type two dashes.
4. Type your text (can be anything). This is the word that will show up as the link that people can click on to read the rest of the entry. Something like “Click here” or “more.”
5. Type two dashes again.
6. Type the right caret (The key right next to the question mark).
NOTE: There are NO spaces between any of this.
Hope this helps!
We were allowed to watch as much tv as we wanted, but we didn’t have cable and all my friends did. So they were always talking about the shows on Nickelodeon, while I was stuck with PBS. I’m assuming Nickelodeon is still the popular channel to watch.
Wait until at least episode 4 or 5 before throwing in the towel, because season three is quite possibly the best writing for the screen that I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot. The final two episodes will destroy you with their awesome.
I don’t have many answers for you. But I will say that Torsten LOVES The Wire, and tells me that it’s one of the most brilliant shows he’s ever seen, and has incredible character development. So maybe that means that it takes a bit of time to get into, since you have to get to know the characters? He thinks I’d really like it too, but I’ve never seen it.
We just started watching The Wire too, and like you I was unimpressed at first — it took a while to get into it, but now we’re officially hooked. Just watched the Season 1 finale last night and now I’m dying for Netflix to hurry up and get some new discs to us.
*Loved* The Wire. You should give it at least 4 episodes. Unless you really don’t like the F-word, then it’ll never work for you.
Season 2 is a little lacking, but Season 4 TOTALLY makes up for it.
Just put The Wire in my Netflix queue. Living in Portugal has me, let’s just say, behind the times.
Can’t help you with the TV thing. I have toddlers who are mainly only interested in home videos right now. Disney just doesn’t have what our home videos have…yet.
Elizabeth- HA! Me, too! Today I was like, “Don’t you want to watch SPONGEBOB?” and they were like, “Nah, we’re putting on Cyberchase.” (Cyberchase is a PBS show.)
Anonymous- I am pretty sure that’s exactly what I’m looking for, is stupid pointless cartoons. List pls!
Marie- I feel the same way: I’m letting them be kids in the year they live in. I have the power to restrict their world dramatically–but I choose to allow SOME of the world to peep through. And man, I agree about Disney! We rented The Little Mermaid, and it was a little scary for ME! Of course, I had the aforementioned restricted childhood.
Courtney- Sadly, fail. I tested it with a blog post, and it didn’t take it. I wonder if Blogger doesn’t accept certain html?
Donna- I’m having some trouble with it too. It’s just so DISMAL and SOUL-CRUSHING to think of living that way! There have already been so many shots of “children playing near the drug dealers.” MUST WE?
Pickles & Dimes- I tried it in one of my own posts, and it failed. I think Blogger must be set up to disallow certain codes. I’d also tried the symbol I use in the Milk & Cookies WordPress, but fail.
Mary- Oh, NICKOLODEON! I remember that channel! I’ve got to look into that! We don’t get it, but I can get DVDs of Nick shows.
Tamara- This is the kind of talk that got me to rent it, even though it didn’t LOOK like my kind of show. I’m hoping it’ll be like Firefly, where I started out going “Um, space westerns? No,” and ended up saying, “THIS RULES THE ENTIRE WORLD.”
Jaime- I had the brill idea of putting on the subtitles: now I can watch with the volume way lower so the kids don’t hear the swears from their rooms in the evening.
I adore the Wire but it took me 8-9 episodes to get into it. It was worth the time investment, though. I just take a long time to be able to keep characters straight, and characters are pretty much the ENTIRE point of the show, so keeping them straighted increased my enjoyment exponentially.
I also grew up as a clueless little weirdo and sometimes worry that I’m going too far in the opposite direction with my son but I can’t help remembering how left out I used to feel all the time. A1 — he’s six — his favorite shows are Spongebob, Cyberchase, and Tom & Jerry.
As for the “read more” feature, you’ll need to include code in the template before using the span-class function. Visit the following Blogger help page:
http://help.blogger.com /bin/answer.py?answer=42215& query=expandable&topic=&type=f
(I put spaces in it to break it up into manageable c’n’p sections).
Just finished Season one of the Wire and LOVED IT!!!! I was actually GIDDY when the first disk of Season 2 was in the mailbox last night. We watched both episodes, and I made a special trip to the post office just to get the disk off in hopes of having another for the weekend! Stick with it. I loved it from the start, but I’m a TV geek.
My boys (5 and 7) like Power Rangers, Drake and Josh, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Hannah Montana, and iCarly. They’ll also watch Danny Phantom or The Fairly Oddparents. And, recently, they’re loving America’s Funniest Home Videos.
Here’s the link to the help thingy for #2. It’s really not as complicated as it looks
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=42215
I keep hearing how fabulous The Wire is, but I just haven’t been able to get into it. I don’t typically mind dark or gritty themes, but somehow this one just isn’t working for me either. I’d rather watch repeats of Six Feet Under any day.
The only 7 year old boy I know REALLY loves Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. It might be an odd choice, but maybe worth a try? :)
Like the others said, give The Wire several episodes before you write it off completely. It’s just like the other HBO dramas that start off slowly and then suck you in with the awesomeness and character development (Oz, Six Feet Under, Deadwood, Carnivale to name a few). All of them had WAY too much cursing for my liking, but I learned to tune it out. I actually found the cursing to be funny in Deadwood (THE best dialogue EVER). Big Love has very little cursing, but still great plot and character development. I did find that their latest drama, I don’t remember the name but it was something about surfers, was a huge stinker. Apparently I’m not the only one because it was canceled after one season. Can you tell I watch way too much HBO?
Alienbea & KTJRDN- THAT looks like the stuff!
HollyLynne- Ha! I think they WOULD like it, but that it wouldn’t make them LESS weird with their peers!
I love the Wire. And even knowing that I would love it, as it is right up my alley, it took me 5 episodes to get into it, for all the reasons others have cited (complicated plot lines, slow but authentic character development, etc.) It takes the most unflinching look at poverty and crime that I have ever seen on tv. Love.
English 10 year old boys seem to go for Top Gear and Dr Who and spurn the kids programmes if my nephew is any guide.
Bummer! I have no answers. Sorry. Good thing you have smarter readers than me.
Here is my list, coming from my kids, ages 2 (yes, unfortunately he does TALK. A. LOT.), 6, 10, 13:
1. Spongebob
2. I Carly
3. Drake & Josh
4. Mythbusters
5. How It’s Made
6. Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends
7. Wizards of Waverly Place
8. Dr. Who
9. The Reaper
10. Kyle XY
Lots of these are available on DVD. Netflix has a bunch. Hope this helps.
We just started watching The Wire and really love it. I actually used to see it on HBO in passing and deemed it too bloody, sweary, and violent… but now that I’m watching it from the start, I really like it (and I am a Project Runway type of TV watcher). It’s great, definitely keep with it. The characters are so good.
I think it is unbelievably annoying to have to click through to see the end of the post. DRIVES ME NUTS! I use a reader so that all the stuff I want is right there in front of me. I do not subscribe to new blogs with only partial feeds because they are my pet peeve.
I grew up watching WAY too much TV. Now I do not watch it at all. Am I a socially awkward adult? Perhaps. But I love being able to say, “Oh, no, I haven’t seen it. I don’t watch TV.” It makes me feel very high-and-mighty, very far above the common-folk.
My brother and I pretty much were able to choose what we wanted to watch (the only exception I remember was “Beavis and Butt-head,” and only because we STARTED TALKING LIKE THAT.) I believe to this day that I owe my mad Jeopardy! skillz to the appalling amount of TV I watched.
One of my good friends in high school was very sheltered, and she never had any idea what we were talking about. It drove her crazy having to have every! single! cultural reference spelled out for her. She felt like her parents did her a disservice, not because TV and movies necessarily make you a better person, but it helps you at least keep up with your peers. (There! Now that I’ve restated your post…)
I teach first grade, and I’ve heard my kids talking about most of the shows already mentioned. I’ll add “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends” and “Johnny Test” to the list. I’ll also point out that my HUSBAND likes “Viva Pinata” and often has the same tastes as a 10-year-old. :-Þ
I seem to be the odd one out here, but my parents didn’t let us watch much of anything (we didn’t even own a tv/vcr until I was 10), but that didn’t affect my social life at all. We were allowed to watch movies/tv at friends’ houses, so it wasn’t an awkward thing. We just played a lot more, read a lot more, and at that age, I don’t find kids actually talk much about tv. We now are starting our family and don’t plan to have a tv for our kids either, only occasional movies. Just my thoughts!
And P.S… we still don’t watch tv (virtue of not owning one) and it doesn’t affect our social life now, either! We just find other (possibly better, though I’m not trying to sound high-horse-ish) things to talk about.
Sherry- I don’t like partial feed, either. That isn’t what she wants, though: she wants only partials on the PAGE (so that people can scroll through looking for the subject they want, without having to scroll through pages and pages per post), but the whole thing will still be there, intact, in the reader.
Thanks for the TV ideas, everyone! I am taking notes and loading the Netflix queue!
My brother is ADDICTED to ‘The Wire’! I would hazard to guess that he would miss the birth of his first child in the event of a new episode. I’ve watched it once or twice and it just didn’t do it for me. I should confess that I LOVED HBO’s “Carnivale” and everyone else hated it so that should speak volumes about my TV tastes.
I watched plenty of TV growing up…but I remember several classmates and neighborhood kids at different periods while growing up that DIDN’T HAVE TV. And even though they may have been a little geeky, they always seemed to be really smart and really outgoing…probably because of all those OTHER extracurricular activities they spent time on instead of the boob tube. And to this day I wish I had it in me to get rid of the TV and do other stuff…but can’t…addicted…can’t turn it off…
Unless it’s the Wire…because I don’t WANT to take an unflinching look at poverty and crime.
Honestly, I’m of no help, but I am SO grateful that I’m not the only one who was super-sheltered and behind the curve, pop culture-wise, growing up. Didn’t see Pretty Woman until I was an ADULT. AN ADULT. AN OLD ADULT AT THAT.
I don’t feel like I can be much help in any of these areas, accept to say that if you have DVDs/Videos at your local library, you can ask the children’s librarian (or any librarian) what the kids are checking out these days and make some decisions from there.
I adored The Wire. Absolutely the best show ever. Stick with it for at least a few more episodes.
Ellen- I don’t think you’re odd one out: I think if I’d asked “SHOULD I have my children watch TV to be more in step with their peers?” (ha ha!–like I’d turn the Internet on THAT question!), you’d find a lot of people saying exactly what you said.
Kelsey- OOooh, good idea about the librarians! They always know EVERYTHING!
This will probably sound silly, but my enjoyment of The Wire grew exponentially once I found Alan Sepinwall’s blog:
http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/
As luck would have it, he’s going back and re-watching the series from the beginning this summer and posting a review every Friday–one for newbies and one for people who have seen the whole series. I highly recommend it to enhance your Wire viewing.
I Think You Should- !!!! This is PERFECT!
1. The Wire took me a while to get into. My husband watched three seasons by himself before I got into it and then we went back and started from the beginning. The violence and bleakness was hard to stomach at first but then you come to love the characters (some of them) and it all feels so real (in good and bad ways). It’s intense television.
2. I got nothing.
3. This is by far the most influential argument I’ve heard for letting kids watch some TV. We are currently TV-free but we only have 1 kid and she’s only 2. I certainly don’t want her to be the only one who doesn’t know the hip cool show. Given her parents’ experiences, she’ll have enough strikes against her as it is.
Blogger hacks has several options – I think they call it peek a boo posts
Blogger Buster uses the hack -see has a post here on it
http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2007/06/use-selective-post-summaries-in-new.html
I loved The Wire almost from the first episode. Yes, it’s bleak, but it’s not unrealistic. If it’s too depressing for you to watch a show about people living in poverty and in some cases in really desperate situations, you’re probably never going to like it. However, for me it was one of the most well written, well acted, and well directed programs I’ve ever seen over all four seasons I’ve seen so far. I recently read Gang Leader For A Day – a book by a grad student who spent about 6 years living in and around the Chicago projects and interacting with gang members etc., and it was so similar to The Wire that I had to keep reminding myself that The Wire is fiction and GLFAD is real. The Wire was that well researched and realistic.
When people say they don’t own a TV, the line from Friends always pops into my head:
“What’s all your furniture pointed at?” — Joey
I’ve grown up watching an average amount of television. I was pretty much a fan of the well-known shows, but I also loved reading, and playing outside and I think I had a well-rounded childhood that just included TV and movies as a part of average, daily life (it wasn’t the focus, but it always wasn’t not there). I still watch an adequate amount of television, and find it a nice distraction when I’m home alone (I need background noise or I go nuts!).
My 9-year-old brother pretty much sticks to Family Channel (which plays all the Disney shows here in Canada). He likes:
– The Suite Life of Zach & Cody
– Life with Derek
– Wizards of Waverly Place (I like this one too, reminds me of the Sabrina, The Teenage Witch show that I grew up with!)
… he pretty much watches whatever comes on that channel, including Hannah Montana and stuff. Gender stereotypes don’t seem to be a big deal for him right now, Hannah Montana has a few very funny male characters so I don’t believe it’s restricted as being a “girl’s show”. It’s a pretty entertaining little TV show.
He used to also like Spongebob a lot, and The Fairly Odd Parents.
I never found Disney movies offensive for children. I loved them growing up. A lot of the more subtle parts that adults notice go right over kids’ heads anyway; it just adds a little entertainment for the adults.
My boys pretty much like all the shows listed here in previous comments. (iCarly, Spongebob, Drake & Josh, Suite Life of Zack & Cody) Their new favorite, though, is Trick My Truck. They are totally addicted.
Don’t forget about music either! It’s been a huge deal to listen to popular music lately. Their favorite is the Jonas Brothers. They also like the Naked Brothers Band.
ABC Family had a new movie out — Camp Rock. It features the Jonas Brothers and it’s all the talk right now.
My boys pretty much like all the shows listed here in previous comments. (iCarly, Spongebob, Drake & Josh, Suite Life of Zack & Cody) Their new favorite, though, is Trick My Truck. They are totally addicted.
Don’t forget about music either! It’s been a huge deal to listen to popular music lately. Their favorite is the Jonas Brothers. They also like the Naked Brothers Band.
ABC Family had a new movie out — Camp Rock. It features the Jonas Brothers and it’s all the talk right now.
My boys pretty much like all the shows listed here in previous comments. (iCarly, Spongebob, Drake & Josh, Suite Life of Zack & Cody) Their new favorite, though, is Trick My Truck. They are totally addicted.
Don’t forget about music either! It’s been a huge deal to listen to popular music lately. Their favorite is the Jonas Brothers. They also like the Naked Brothers Band.
ABC Family had a new movie out — Camp Rock. It features the Jonas Brothers and it’s all the talk right now.
RE: Camp Rock
I totally watched that when I was baby-sitting my brother last weekend. It’s forty times better than those dumb High School Musical movies. I enjoyed it. hahaha.
I don’t know a damn thing about code — but for your googling purposes, that thing is usually called “the jump” (as in: more on this topic “after the jump”).