Excitable Edgar is that child in your kids’ class who has never been told where the boundaries of acceptable behaviour lie

[avocadoze]

I cannot get emotional about this years JL advert. The whole village gets together to make the square look absolutely beautiful and this dragon just goes and trashes it. He melts the ice and stops them ice skating and he messes up the snowman. Not cute. Just cute-looking. I’m not seeing why his parents haven’t stepped in to explain the need to be considerate. Basically, Edgar is a PITA who looks cute, and we’ve all known kids like that in our children’s classes. AIBU to fail to feel the Christmas spirit here?

Don’t think so

Evidently OP!

The way op phrased this about the the child with no boundaries also made me thinks of dc with no understanding of boundaries no matter how much their responsible, poor tired out parents try to teach them.

Sorry op!!

PS when I watched the the ad I just thought of it as a fun, fairytale Xmas ad with a cute dragon

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe eh?

I’m not telling anyone how they should interpret the ad?

OP posted an opinion, I disagreed and posted mine. Isn’t that how discussion forums work?!?

As the parent of a child with SN I can identify with it. It may not be specifically about SN but it echoes the experiences of many people with SN. Trying to fit in a world that doesn't even bother to try and understand you and views you as a nuisance.
I am very involved with charities and research in the area of socialisation and full participation of those with LDs.

That's what I thought, Dyrne but you've said posters are 'sneering' and telling them that they have no place to do that. I'm sorry if I've misunderstood you but that's how it read to me. I felt really uncomfortable for that dragon (ffs) and didn't like the face that he wasn't accepted until he 'performed' and lit the Christmas pudding. It really made me sad.

We all interpret adverts differently. This JL one really needles me but actually, not as much as the new WWF one which has jumped on the climate change bandwagon and missed the point, in my opinion.

My favourite advert this year is either the Argos dad/daughter drummers - or the M&S jumper advert with the brilliant 'Jump Around' by House of Pain as the song... they even left the swearing in!

fact, not face.

@treeofwhispers the was about the name change fail : trying to see which other poster @Dyrne was suggesting that I was using as a sock puppet.

(And in the spirit of reasonableness, it’s clear that (a) it’s a fairytale (b) some people are interpreting it in different ways, and the OP wasn’t about the “lonely child with SN” interpretation.)

There are loads of children's books that use an animal to characterise children's experiences or difficulties, including those who are "different" or left out in some way. I don't think that's offensive - it's a long tradition of metaphor, it's not saying a child is or is like an animal.

Not seen the advert either though! I think it's interesting how The Christmas Adverts of certain big shops have become a cultural thing, such that now they actually get announced and officially launched, and everyone duly picks them to pieces.

I liked the snowman going to buy a scarf one

Edgar made me think of my Dpuppy.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe sorry if I wasn’t clear - I was specifically referring to the OP coming back on after mums of SN children and saying in effect that surely JL wouldn’t be so crass as to assign SN traits to a dragon, effectively dismissing those who had related to the advert in that way.

avocadoze I realise now from your subesquent posts that you use “OP” to mean “Opening post” rather than “Original poster”.

Your OP is about how you think Edgar represents a classmate who is a pita due to poor parenting. That the character is a dragon in a human world seems to have passed you by.

Dyrne, thanks for explaining. I do so often do get the wrong end of the stick.

Haven't seen the ad yet but I can't get on board with a dragon called Edgar. It's not even alliterative ffs. Humbug.

@Dyrne I came across wrong in that case - my perspective was that I don’t like the “othering” of people with SN, or characterisation that is too simplistic and not seeing them as whole people. PP were seeing a message about including people who were ostracised.

Actually, the way I had seen it was as I described in the OP. It’s a minority of challenging behaviour that comes from SN: kids are naughty for plenty other reasons and some are not given boundaries.

I have a preteen with ADHD. A friend who also has a DS with ADHD sant me a link to the advert.
I showed it to DS1 and HE made the link to Edgar and ADHD. It made him smile sadly.

no, he is a Dragon

OK I've watched it now. I cried

I don't think he's actually like a naughty/unboundaried child or one with SEN, he's just a dragon and in fact nothing about him being a dragon is problematic except his fire, which he tries to contain. He clearly does know right from wrong and cares about other people's feelings, but wants to join in and then his fire affects them. Not sure it has any meaning other than you can use your quirks for good if you try.

However I don't think the... SPOILER

...flaming pudding really makes up for the other disasters! I just cried when he shut himself in his house feeling bad. Nice house though. Love the medieval-style village and villagers.

Before long, there'll be an academic conference on Christmas adverts that we can all go to. Probably is already.

I think the whole advert began with a toy buyer visiting a toy fair, scoring a good deal on soft toy dragons to push in stores, and built the ad round that, add a reworking of an old song that has been re recorded by a friend of someone in the ad agency. Just wondering if they will be selling cooks blow torches with dragon handles, to flame the Christmas pudding. They want a presence on Christmas TV, but ultimately want kids to pester people to buy the toys/books/quilt covers for them.

I was an Edgar and I have an Edgar.... THIS BLOG SUMS IT UP BEAUTIFULLY

It’s a shit advert.
Not emotional at all- he’s an ugly dragon who keeps messing stuff up. Compare that to the bear and the hare advert, it’s all gone downhill

But how do you know which kids in your kids class have SEN and which have no boundaries? Not every parent in DS2s class knows he has autism. His behaviour is often judged as being naughty or lacking boundaries. Believe me, it’s not for lack of trying to enforce boundaries but sometimes he just doesn’t get it.

So when he gets hyper, or loud or starts flapping maybe this advert will have made some people understand that some cannot help certain aspects of their behaviour, and maybe fewer people will judge. Frankly I’m exhausted enough dealing with him, I could do with a few less judgy onlookers making it harder. He already knows he’s different, tyts and stares make him (and me) feel even more shit.

Tuts and stares

I like Edgar. He's not deliberately destructive, he tries hard to keep his flames under control but at the same time he's desperate to be involved and join in and sometimes he gets things wrong. It makes me so happy at the end when he's finally able to do something that makes others happy rather than cross, his little face just lights up (see what I did there!). I think its nice, it shows everyone has something they can be valued for. And yes I am waaay too over invested in the emotions of an imaginary little dragon.

I'm on lots of fb groups for parents of kids with send and trauma. Every single one has got a thread going "bloody hell that's our kids - someone gets it" .