Tracy Beaker

[SquishyBones]

I remember watching this on kids TV years ago but as a child I never really got how “serious” the story was. For some reason it just came into my head and I looked it up on Wiki and the story is actually quite sad isn’t it? Infact, you wouldn’t believe it was a kids TV program!

Did anyone watch it? Also I might be out of the loop as my kids are old now but AIBU to think they don’t actually make kids tv programs anymore?? What DO kids watch these days? Do they still make kids dramas??

[CodenameVillanelle]

Yes they do but kids tend to watch YouTube instead! In fact my DS started watching 'the dumping ground' which is a follow on from Tracey beaker whilst we have been in lockdown. I annoyed him though because I kept interrupting with all the things that were unrealistic as I'm a social worker

[SquishyBones]

Haha just reading the wiki made me realise how unrealistic it all was ... Tracy happens to meet a hippy writer and decides that this is the woman who will foster her ... and of course, she does with zero background checks 😂

[Yerroblemom1923]

Which bits are unrealistic, Codename? I'm curious (I'm not a social worker)

[CodenameVillanelle]

Well in the episodes I watched there was a 6 year old living in a children's home with teenagers, about 10 children in the home and when a child came back to the house and said that her brother was trapped in a house with a violent man, the staff shot over there to rescue him rather than calling the police! You also had a couple coming to the house to meet a child they were interested in fostering which led to lots of upset for the other children, and a child going back to a clearly abusive household and the staff seeming to do nothing about it. It's a programme about children in care and it's aimed at children obviously but it should still have some level of reality in it, especially around issues of safety.

[Langsdestiny]

There were two staff running an entire childrens home. They seemed to live there all the time. A home of that size would have about 20 staff. It was nonsense. But it was a tv show.

[chunkyrun]

I think that's what jw was good at! Taking quite sad stories and issues. Then turning them into something palatable for children. I hardly noticed it until I was older

[Toomanycats99]

My nearly 9yo has just started watching Tracey beaker - she loves it.

Her main love though is the Disney stuff - descendants / zombies which seem to be the modern day high school musical.