to have expected comic relief to be watchable for my 5 year old before 8pm

[PrincessScrumpy]

I know comic relief gets a bit rude as the night goes on but I made the mistake of thinking that as dd has been raising money at school it would be good to let her stay up and watch until 7.45pm.

Yes I knew there would be jokes she wouldn't get but I didn't expect her to be taught the word shagging.

I remember watching it with my parents and wanted to do the same.

So, am I being a fuddy duddy?

[MissAnnersley]

You haven't missed a memo, just the point really.

[NotMostPeople]

Pathetic, honest OP you have seriously missed the point.

[Honey40]

I am so surprised at how rude people are to each other here. I have never visited Mumsnet before but I am terribly sad at the passive aggressive responses I have just read to a perfectly reasonable thread. I have a 9 year old who raised money at school and wanted to watch comic relief. She is thoughtful and compassionate, as many children are when faced with the inequalities of the world, and wanted to understand more about the charity she had spent the day helping. Being 9, she has never encountered words like shagging and vajazzle (which I would hope to be the case for most 9 year olds), so I was quite surprised to have to deal with them on what should have been, at least for the first hour, a funny and thought-provoking programme. I allowed my daughter to watch the sad sections in Africa which I thought were appropriate and educational, though switched off from the one where the hosts warned it would be difficult viewing because, as any good parent, I regulate what my child is exposed to. I do not think that any parent who felt surprised by the content of comic relief should be lambasted as being an 'over-reacting twin set wearer' who is out of step with the rest of the country. If that is the case then I worry about what the future holds if we allow a continual erosion of childhood in this way. I did not intend to write this much but I had hoped to find a mature and measured discussion on this forum as I found myself wondering if other parents had been concerned by this. What a shame that a handful of adults on here are more interested in criticising other parents rather than offering constructive and balanced opposing views which are worth considering.

[wordfactory]

honey one word; paragraphs.

[Kyrptonite]

Sometimes MN goes a bit mental doesn't it?
Snagging isn't swearing. Vajazzle isn't swearing and I'm pretty sure it's mentioned on that Kevin Bacon phone advert which is on pre-watershed anyways.
I would be more offended by my DCs seeing someone more upset by 2 words than they were by the devestating footage in Africa.

[OrangeFireandGoldashes]

Hmmm. I've given that some careful thought Miss A and no, I don't think so. I don't see anything so terrible in wanting to watch and discuss something as a family that is billed as humour, starts before the watershed, actively encourages children to get involved throughout the day AND will open eyes as to the plight of others so heartbreakingly less fortunate than ourselves without having to run the gamut of the seemingly-inevitable sex-based jokes.

Poverty, disease, infant mortality are all shocking things. We NEED to know about them and we NEED to change them. There's nothing wrong in a child being exposed to this knowledge in a loving, supportive way and having it gently explained to them how incredibly lucky they are in comparison, how the things they have done at school has helped change things and what more the family might want to do in the future to help further. We don't NEED lowest-common-denominator fart-bum-willy-shag jokes to get the point across. What's wrong with an hour or two of clean humour before letting rip with the shagging and vajazzle?

(And for the record, I'm not a prude and watch plenty of post-watershed humour; I can just see the point here.)

[MissAnnersley]

DS has certainly heard far, far worse in the playground and is most definitely not in anyway upset or traumatised by vajazzle or shagging. They made him laugh which was, I suspect, the point.

The films from Africa were not 'sad' - they were horrifying. Absolutely bloody horrifying.

[MissAnnersley]

Sorry, was replying to Honey.

[MissAnnersley]

I really don't understand where you are coming from at all Orange. Sorry.

[Honey40]

Ok. Now I see why people get so upset on here. So far I have been picked up on my use of paragraphs and use of the word 'sad' rather than a word such as 'horrifying.' Although heartened that word choice and grammar are so high up on some people's lists I continue to be disappointed by the content of these discussions. Nevermind. I guess these types of forums are not for me.

[Furball]

They did not use the actual word Vajazzle,

they said something like she'd decorated her ladygarden with jewels.

[Kyrptonite]

Maybe try netmums.

[MissAnnersley]

Disappointed and heartened?

Sounds like one of my school reports.

[LIZS]

thought I heard "vajazzle" . The content was more adult than family but think there are huge overreactions on here. If you normally watch EE was that really any worse than you might normally see in an episode?

[RoseandVioletCreams]

Children do alot of fundrasing all year for lots of different things at home and at school.

Comic relief is not thankfully the only time the children learn about those less fortunate.
It was however our first time this year with a small child who had been taking part in activities all day.

it seems we were not alone in thinking it would be appropriate and educational to let our children stay up specially to show them more examples of those less fortunate as well as the other items clearly aimed at children, like miss piggy and one direction and so we thought mr bean.

We were simply naieve, Next year we will not put it on at all.

My Children can learn about the plight of others without watching that particular program.

I may also say, no one has any idea on here just what kind of personal and nasty and evil losses any of us have suffered on here, my heart goes out to those who have suffered loss and pain and suffering anywhere.

No one has any idea of the losses and pain my own family and DC have suffered.

That still doesn't mean I am happy that items I would consider to be after the watershed should be on a program I thought would include the family.

[RoseandVioletCreams]

LIZS

I find EE repulsive and horrific and I think its nasty and vile!
I would never ever watch it and unfortunalty I gave up a few precious hours of my life watching it when I was younger.

I would never ever watch it now and certainly would not want my 5 year old to watch it.

I do not want my DC to see a horrid sketch about a group of thugs attacking someones mum.

[NotMostPeople]

Well my ten year old was shocked, upset and will not ever be the same after watching last nights comic relief. Not because he heard the word shagged or vejazzle (over his head) but by the scenes he saw in Africa. He had a cry about it again this morning.

We knew that our dc's might react like this and we made the decision that was a good thing in the long run (with our support). If hearing these non swear words is too high a price to pay for teaching our children about real hardship then I despair.

My dc's gave all their savings last night and have talked about how we can stop this happening and what we can do to help. These children are our future and if all our children grow into adults with these values the world will be a better place. They'll know about the word shag and vejazzle in a few years anyway.

[Honey40]

Thank you coconut. You have proved my point beautifully.

[UnknownGnome]

Well said roses. You've articulated what I've been trying to say. I moved away from the thread because it became nasty and was insinuated that to be disappointed with the early content of the show means the bigger issues have been missed. They have not. Like you, we won't watch as a family again. That's not to say I won't contribute to he cause financially. I always do.

[RoseandVioletCreams]

Ten

is a whole five years older than five,

that is quiet a difference isn't it.

I am sorry that this seems to be the first time your DC have been exposed to the suffering of others NOT MOST.

Mine are always learning about those less fortunate in lots of different ways.

Seeing the sad clips wasnt the first time my 5 year old had seen those less fortunate.


Comic Relief isn't the only day of the year when we give money to charity or think about those suffering in different countries and indeed our own.

[Kyrptonite]

NotMostPeople your DCs sound lovely if they've donated all their savings. That's the point of comic relief isn't it? To spread the message that every little donation can help to do something and each year a new lot of children watch and realise that they can help. A couple of non swear words won't change that no matter how hysterical the reaction.