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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think this 'comedian' on Radio 4 shouldn't have said this at 11.30am?

211 replies

Imchangingmyname · 19/10/2015 18:37

In the car earlier with DD 3.5 and baby DS. Radio 4 is on, with a comedy-type show presented by Sue Perkins (who I love by the way), when some silly bint announces that all 5-year-old's should be told that Santa doesn't exist?!? All said very seriously, given it was supposed to be a 'comedy' show. DD didn't say anything but is the type of child who stores things up and mentions it later. Didn't want to say anything at the time as didn't want to draw attention to it.
AIBU to think she shouldn't have said it??

OP posts:
WorraLiberty · 20/10/2015 10:58

Why don't you turn the radio off and actually talk to your children instead?

Original poster
Imchangingmyname · 20/10/2015 10:58

cactus someone mentioned upthread that I am repeating myself but that's because posters such as yourself don't seem to have read my previous responses.

So I will say again, I have no problem with the light swearing and most of the subjects when listening with DC. I do not want them to be sheltered, I want them to know the world is a big place from an early age. Radio 4 and its subjects are mostly brilliant, informative And intelligent in an increasingly dumbed-down world.

However, I am objecting to someone being 'clever' and announcing clearly and seriously at 11.30am that all children should be told that Santa doesn't exist!
Those who think I am being U I think are those who don't have kids or those who have grown-up kids and have become bitter forgetful.

OP posts:
PurpleDaisies · 20/10/2015 11:00

Those who think I am being U I think are those who don't have kids or those who have grown-up kids and have become bitter forgetful.

What a patronising loads of bollocks. I really dislike this lazy sort of argument.

PatriciaHolm · 20/10/2015 11:03

Those who think I am being U I think are those who don't have kids or those who have grown-up kids and have become bitter forgetful

Or people who have children but also still own a sense of perspective.

Siwi · 20/10/2015 11:04

Father Christmas is a kindly tradition put on by the children to make the parents believe that they believe. They keep it up for as long as they can for the sake of the presents.

Siwi · 20/10/2015 11:04

Oops, not presents; that should have read parents.

PurpleDaisies · 20/10/2015 11:06

Presents was an appropriate swap there siwi!

PurpleDaisies · 20/10/2015 11:10

I am objecting to someone being 'clever' and announcing clearly and seriously at 11.30am that all children should be told that Santa doesn't exist!

What do you propose then? A watershed on saying that Santa doesn't exist?

Siwi · 20/10/2015 11:11

No mistake there, Purple!

DisappointedOne · 20/10/2015 11:13

However, I am objecting to someone being 'clever' and announcing clearly and seriously at 11.30am that all children should be told that Santa doesn't exist!
Those who think I am being U I think are those who don't have kids or those who have grown-up kids and have become bitter forgetful.

I have a 5 year old, do no "Santa work" and suspect that stating that all of the CBeebies programmes literally spewing Santa as if every child believes (or should believe) throughout December boils my piss may also be considered "unreasonable".

Do feel free to phone social services as I'm clearly doing DD a disservice by not creating an elaborate lie each year and requiring children in the third world to churn out endless plastic tat to fill the living room with. Hmm

BitOutOfPractice · 20/10/2015 11:33

Fwiw I adored all the fc shit with my kids. They are teenagers now and we still leave a mince pie and beer for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph and the pyjama fairy comes on Christmas Eve. Clearly nobody really believes, it's just a family tradition we all enjoy. So I can assure you that I am not anti Santa. (Though I'm not sure I ever did "Santa work")

I just don't expect the rest of the world to revolve around me, my kids, or the silly stuff we do together.

Also bear in mind that the quiz to which you refer is broadcast at at least twice on R4 at different times. And more on 4extra. Which muddies the watershed waters further

PatriciaHolm · 20/10/2015 11:45

I'm thinking this might be appropriate about now...

To think this 'comedian' on Radio 4 shouldn't have said this at 11.30am?
TPel · 20/10/2015 11:46

I agree wholeheartedly with Bit

Radio 4 is an adult station and should not have to edit its transmissions to ensure that 3 year olds are safe in their FC beliefs.

CactusAnnie · 20/10/2015 11:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PurpleDaisies · 20/10/2015 11:51

I love that cartoon patricia.

EnthusiasmDisturbed · 20/10/2015 11:55

ds is 7

He knows but chooses to still believe as it's fun

Let's face if Santa came along and only left an orange and chocolate bar children would not find it all quite so magical

BitOutOfPractice · 20/10/2015 11:58

Oh thankyou Cactus I have never heard that phrase before so I have learned something new. It coud cover about half of MN I think! Grin

And FWIW OP the "comedian" (not sure what the speech marks are for) was not saying what she said to be "clever" (or indeed to piss you off) but to be amusing in the context of an adult comedy show on an adult network

CactusAnnie · 20/10/2015 11:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BertieBotts · 20/10/2015 11:59

PNP is bleurgh and creepy. It involves Santa telling your children if they've been good or bad.

I think YABU. DS is 7 and still believes, I think. I don't think that him randomly hearing that FC doesn't exist is going to shake his belief any more than him watching a programme about talking pigs will make him believe that pigs can actually talk.

Ricardian · 20/10/2015 12:24

I don't recall this obsessive concern of people "believing" in Santa either from my own childhood or from when my children were small. We always (and still do) left out a mince pie, but always joked with the children about it.

I have a suspicion that for some people it's become a proxy for "they grow up so fast these days", and by preserving a "belief" they can continue to talk about their children being "still children" as though it's a touchstone for innocence. The idea that an 11.30am comedy show in October, probably recording in front of an audience of adults one evening in the summer, should concern itself with this is fantastical. As someone else said: what next, the tooth fairy?

Radio 4 isn't a children's station, and nor is its offshoot 4Extra (nee 7). I once had the depressing experience of sitting in the Big Toe Radio Show studio, when it was still going out on 7, watching the presenters vamping for thirty minutes around the fact that a nationally broadcast radio show had received zero, count them, zero phone calls when they threw the lines open on a Saturday afternoon.

I listen to little other than Radio 4, and did when my children were small, but I recognised that any moment might be a teachable moment. That's not a bad place to start with any medium.

UncertainSmile · 20/10/2015 12:26

I think it's more of a crime to expose young kids to the terrible acting and boring storylines of The Archers.

BitOutOfPractice · 20/10/2015 12:31

I'm giving you a Paddington hard stare Uncertain

Vespula · 20/10/2015 12:58

Blimey, what a lot of faff over all that hiding wrapping paper etc. When I was small my parents went abroad a lot on work trips, so what we got in our stockings that year reflected where they'd been. I didn't cotton on that this might indicate that Father Christmas hadn't provided them until I was quite a bit older! I just thought he was so clever at reflecting our new interest in that particular region...

The thing that made me start suspecting was the fact that in our house the only things that came from FC were the contents of the stocking (magically appearing overnight despite my carefully constructed paper-chain Father Christmas traps across the door of my bedroom!), whereas he seemed to give some of my friends whole pillowcases full of stuff or big presents like bikes etc. Hmm

We still do the carrot and mince pie left out even though the youngest person in the house at Christmas is 15. It's just part of the openly acknowledged tongue-in-cheek ritual.

Siwi · 20/10/2015 13:14

What does PNP stand for?

OnlyLovers · 20/10/2015 13:25

For all those saying 'it's an adults show' blah blah blah..by that argument, they shouldn't be discussing fucking Santa then!

Um. Confused I don't follow at all. Can adults not talk about Santa, and about how adults interact with children, except in the context of a children's programme?

And YABU.