Messages about families in US are pretty advanced for such a conservative country?

[Rohanda]

i-carly - no present parents, with no mention of a mum at all, dad is in a submarine. Friend 1.Freddy has no dad. friend 2. has no dad and a dysfunctional mum.
House of Anubis - a private school with no parent figures
Just Add Water - Aussie, yes but on nickelodeon - none of the 3 girls has a nuclear family set up.
Drake and Josh - a step-family.
Wizards of Waverly Place - they are a mix of wizards and non-wizards.
Spongebob - well, what can I say!
Two of a Kind - twins with only a father with them.

What are we to make of this? The drive to establish the need for a 2 plus 2 family structure is being utterly undermined by the the biggest proponent of 'family values' that feeds the capitalist system, i.e. the US.

But is all of this consistent with family values in old European fairy tales, about children making their own way?

or,,,AIBU to suggest it's all preset for a very flexible attitude to family structures in the future.

The programming is the fault of the liberal elite. Or the feminists. Or both.

Living here in the states, I would suggest that the programes you talk of are nothing more deep that the state of the writers mind when they conceived the show .

All those shows are pure fantasy ~ I doubt any child or family (for that matter ) connects themselves to anything shown anywhere in them .

Each state is like a separate country ,they can not be grouped together .

Yes, the states are very different, and regions of states are very different. Minnesota, where I live, is technically in the MidWest. We do have a lot of typically mid-western attitudes and beliefs but also have a lot in common with the New England states ("Maine practicality", etc.) The regions of the US were settled at such different times by such different groups; they really do each have a unique culture.

And I've lived in the rural midwest my entire life and am not a racist, homophobe, or conservative.

lol I don't get it

That's interesting footmassage ! Though I think in the case of the Marches Marmee was a guiding force.

OP, do you realise just how huge this country that you are generalising about is? How diverse?
Love Goblinchild,
citizen of the UK
(Slightly smaller than Oregon)

The US tends to the liberal down the coasts - which is where the programmes are made, but the geographically larger central area is mainly very traditional Christian, which I think is what the OP means.

Unfortunately the US is such a big place it's hard to generalise. A bit like saying everyone in Africa lives in a mud hut

Sheehs, OP, do your homework. There is a liberal Jewish (Pinko Leftie) elite running most of the American media, especially TV and Hollywood, all the rightwing conservative nutcase shock jockey radio pundits, eg. Rush Limbaugh, bang on about it constantly. Thus why the TV programmes show such "diversity"... except that actually most Americans are much more diverse than foreign reporters make out, the journos only want to talk to the loud extremists to make their reports colourful. The people who don't care or are just getting on with their lives don't get a look in.

Because since when do TV exports adequately reflect the full cultural range of any nation, anyway? I am fed up with British people who think they know American culture because they've watched a lot of TV. As if Benny Hill, Are you Being Served? and Blakes Seven together show well what Britain was like in 1980, too.

my ds is 10yo and I have watched all these programs over the years.I actually hate them and ban them when he is being lippy/naughty.I know theyre kids programs but have you heard how lippy the kids are in these programs?And considering theyre kids programs theres alot of snogging and relationships between boy and girl in them.not good I dont think for 10yos.

The structure of the families doesnt bother me as they all seem normal to me.

Children's writers write to entertain. They have a product to sell. A TV programme, a book or a film about a perfectly normal family where the kids are well loved and cared for would leave very little to interest or excite anyone. Boring, basically.

OP, there are conservative elements in the US, but you can hardly call it a conservative country!

THE UK IS SMALLER THAN OREGON?!

Unless the CIA World Factbook is lying.
I've always loved the way that it compares all the countries of the world to states in America, to give the citizens of the US a frame of reference they can relate to.
Yup
Oregon.

You could fit 2 UKs into the state of California, I think.

Cripes! I knew it was small (well, in comparison anyway), but wow.

It seems that most British people think that Americans have an attitude about WW2, that we "won it for you", blah blah blah, but it isn't true. When I was in school our history teacher always talked about the United Kingdom's brave fight, about it being really quite a small island, and how the forces stood so strongly for so long.

And now thinking that...holy crap! That's amazing.

I think you've missed the show that's watched almost universally by America's youth - The Simpsons.

I wasn't allowed to watch the Simpsons when I was little. :)

needafootmassage summed it up perfectly. Children's stories, series and programmes have always been like that. Everywhere.

You can't really deduce a country's psyche by the programmes it makes, surely.

Imagine judging the UK on X Factor, the archers and Eastenders (oh, hang on...)

GitAwf, you missed Jeremy Kyle out!