Horrid Henry at school but banned at home

[Chippychop]

I've banned hh at home because I can see it changes ds 6 behaviour even dd 2 starts blowing raspberries. Just found out they watch it at school during wet play. Do you think it is suitable or am Aibu?

Oh right then pointythings, I'll crack open the Saw Movies for the dcs then Of course it's reasonable to ban certain things if they affect children in an adverse way.

My kids did not like Perfect Peter at all.

I hate HH and it does have an affect on DS's behaviour but he has asd and tends to mimic.
I still hate it and I am unshakeable in my conviction that if the books were called darstedly Deonte or Malicious Mason they wouldn't be quite so popular.

I have no issue with HH himself being vile and all and, as such, I have no problem with them watching the show. Imo it's not inappropriate for a 6yo to be watching it. But... the books are so terminally boring in content and style and the characters so one dimensional it is banned in our house!

Have you seen a change in his behaviour after he watches it at school OP? Because if not, it would seem a good thing he's watching it there; he can get it all out of his system at school and you won't be pestered for it at home where it does have a negative effect.

I often read Horrid Henry to children at school as they generally love it. I work in Y1. Never shown it though, only read the books. Never had the children copying it though. Maybe just discuss the behaviours and talk about the stories and the characters instead, rather than banning it.

BetsyTrotwood - what are your kids reading?

We banned HH after ds started copying some behaviours and shouting at me. He's only 3 though and inherited the dvd's from his big cousins.
By 6 if he's watching them at school, I would hope to be able to discuss his and parents' behaviour without having the same copying issues.
YANBU to dislike it but YABU to want to ban it at school imo

Really? People ban Horrid Henry? I don't know if its having older dcs but I see it as about as mild as pingu.

Surely teaching your dcs to handle the influences on their behaviour rather than removing the influence entirely is one of the main objectives of parenting?

Horrid henry is brilliant! My ds aged six watches it and finds it funny but he knows henry is a naughty boy and he actually compares himself to him and says what a good boy he is compared to him! We both have a laugh at it. Each to their own but it's only a bit of light hearted fun and seems uptight to ban it.

Winnie the Witch at the mo - far better. I exaggerate when I say I've banned it. The books are in the house... but strategically buried under a mound of other stuff plenty of mounds to choose from here.

I think its ridiculous to make comparisons to the Saw movies, they are rated an 18 for a reason. HH is for young children so has suitable content, whether the parents like it or not is another matter.

I know a parent that won't let her DS watch Ben 10 or Batman but allows Star Wars - can't see the difference really!

lol at the idea of banning Horrid Henry. V. Strange imo.
I think Perfect Peter should definitely be banned though...

I adore Horrid Henry, myself. And in fact I think he tends to appeal to kids who are, by definition, reading books and recognise themselves as quite Perfect Peter-ish. He is an Enactment of the Subversive Unconscious or something like that, I rather suspect.

Also I just find it pant-wettingly hilarious.

my children would never copy Peter and Henry's behaviour, but they get a thrill form the idea of people behaving in these ways, though usually they get their come-uppance.

Without HH, I would never have learnt the correct terminology for 'cocking a snook'!

DS2 (7) loves HH - he has a dvd, several books and the film.

He is more like Perfect Peter so when he/we read the books, he loves the naughtiness, but knows not to do what HH does.

I actually feel for HH in the cartoons and film - his parents really do not like him and openly prefer Peter, even when Henry is not in the wrong

Ah MissBetsy I'd forgotten about Winnie The Witch! I used to love that! Will definitely be getting it fo me DS to watch. Cheers!

Is it really any worse than "classics" such as Just William, the Naughtiest Girl, My Naughty Litle Sister, Dennis the Menace ... ?

Ds1 (6) has just started reading HH books, the early reader ones and is thoroughly enjoying them. I am pleased he has found books to read for 'enjoyment' and am also in th do not ban but encourage conversation about appropriate behaviour. That said, I have asked dh not to put wwf or whatever it is as it winds both the boys up and ends in tears!

Is it just me who finds the books not particularly well-written? after reading one or two,they're a bit samey....

I think they're tosh

BUT otoh I think if you go to the bother of actually banning stuff, it becomes a lot more fascinating to the young and impressionable

this is my direct experience, anyway, from having parents who banned telly-me and my siblings will watch fucking anything are now quite undiscerning

dsis watches Hollyoaks

The Winnie books are terrific for boys and girls imo; funny and well written with interesting characters and in a different league to HH. We got the box set from The Book People around Christmas and mine have hooted their way through all of them.

Good point, LIZS - Just William stories remain some of my favourite reads to this day and you have reminded me I must get some of the Martin Jarvis readings for the car. The main difference between those titles you mentioned and HH is that the former are just... good! (IMO, obviously!)

No Clawdy it's not just you.

LIZS - my take on that is that Horrid Henry is Just William for the low attention span generation. The Just William stories are reasonably clever and funny, whereas Horrid Henry is formulaic and tedious. I actually think Francesca Simon deliberately set out to copy Just William, but dumbed it down.

We didn't ban the books (glad to see DD reading everything) but I'm surprised to see the school allowing the kids to watch the tv series, which I imagine has all the failings of the books without offering the benefits of reading (haven't seen it, may be wrong - they may be works of genius).

I don't like HH or PP.

But my boys do. They ask lots of questions as well, about whether it is worse to be like HH, or whether PP is the worste of the 2.

never thought of banning it. I remember some parents banning Roald Dahl back in the 70s-80s as it was quite cruel and violent.

I think these writers tap into the darker part of the soul. Every human being has a dark side, and it is not bad to explore that a bit. Might even be useful to kids. Nobody is generally good and kind and helpful and selfless all the time.

I like the way the books are written. There are lots of "wow" words and you rarely see a character who simply "said" something: speech is delivered in kinaesthetic, vivd language.

Grammatically, it is fairly simple but with interesting, unexpected bits thrown in.

As to the TV cartoon - I've never seen it and I don't think my dc did.

As to TV during wet play ... some schools don't do a great deal of TV at all. Dd's last school did, which I will admit was one of the things I didn't like about it. So I think I'd not be happy about television being shown full stop.

As to the original dilemma of the OP - sadly, there isn't, really, that much you can do about it. Your children will realise that there are things that go on at school that don't happen at home, and adjust accordingly. For what it's worth, I seethed about television at school when dd was at her previous school. It was massively limited at home, seemed to happen at school all the time, and consequently we had huge arguments about screen time that I just didn't have with ds, who attended a different school (with very little television).