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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think kids media should ease up on the representations of snow

208 replies

someladdersandsnakes · 06/12/2023 07:57

Trying to be lighthearted here but this is bugging me
CBeebies has wall-to-wall snow right now, in all the Christmas episodes and in-between segments, anything to do with Christmas or winter = SNOW SNOW SNOW
Except for Bluey which represents Australian December accurately.
Also books from the library, British ones, it's snowing at Christmas and anything about the seasons is like "in winter it snows bla bla bla"
Well my DD has never seen snow in all of her 5 years and she asks every day when it's going to start snowing, and getting disappointed that it isn't snowing yet.
AIBU to want to see Christmas or winter represented without snow occasionally so it's accurate to our actual lives?

OP posts:
Waitingfordoggo · 06/12/2023 10:12

Rouleur · 06/12/2023 10:07

10 minute train journey from Brighton to Hassocks 🙄

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It’s quite a long walk though from Hassocks to get up on to the Downs with a three year-old! I grew up in Hassocks. We occasionally had snow there but I certainly don’t think it was every year.

IthinkIsawahairbrushbackthere · 06/12/2023 10:13

We are on the coast in West Wales. Five DC - the oldest started school in January 1992, the youngest finished in 2020 and in the course of those 28 years we have had two snow days.

The last significant snow we had (enough to affect public transport) was over forty years ago.

paintingvenice · 06/12/2023 10:14

someladdersandsnakes · 06/12/2023 10:06

I've had multiple comments saying I have no excuse not to visit the downs for snow because it's a half hour drive away. I already said I don't have a car but even if I hadn't said that couldn't you maybe conceive of some people maybe not having a car? I literally cannot get up to the downs to experience snow unless someone wants to give us a lift.

I did intend this as a light hearted post but I'm getting a lot of shaming now for not giving my daughter specific life experiences that I either couldn't access or still can't access!
We went to the beach almost every day during 2020. If someone who lived inland said their child didn't go to the seaside until they were 3 (again partly because of covid) would they get all this flak for it?

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no one would give anyone flack for saying that their child hadn’t been to the seaside by the age of 3. If the poster was saying that CBBC shouldn’t show beaches on kids programmes because their kid hadn’t been to the beach though…

Rouleur · 06/12/2023 10:16

Waitingfordoggo · 06/12/2023 10:12

It’s quite a long walk though from Hassocks to get up on to the Downs with a three year-old! I grew up in Hassocks. We occasionally had snow there but I certainly don’t think it was every year.

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Heavy snow last winter right down into the village.

Tiredalwaystired · 06/12/2023 10:18

someladdersandsnakes · 06/12/2023 08:13

I also get annoyed by the lack of seagull representation in kid's media when there are so many ducks, and DD never saw a real duck until she was 3. I didn't start a thread about that though because that seemed much more specific to seaside towns! Maybe the snow thing is too.

Perhaps you just need to write some books that are very specific to where you live? One where a seagull sits on a wet beach on Christmas Day? A magical festive hit in the making.

Or perhaps Little Jimmy and the Sleety Day.

housethatbuiltme · 06/12/2023 10:20

Come up to the pennines... we have only just got back out after a week of being snowed in.

All roads where blocked by multiple car crashes on the first day, people attempting to get home where sliding left, right and center into oncoming traffic. People DIED, emergancy services couldn't cope, no one could get anywhere due to weather or closures... same every year.

Don't wish for it

TeenLifeMum · 06/12/2023 10:23

Snow in December is unusual in the south - it’s usually February or March (certainly in the last 10 years). We had snow fall last week but it didn’t settle at all. Just flooding now from rain which is far more normal.

however, my brother has snow every year in Canada so it’s representative of North America (which influences a lot of our media).

IStandWithACrutch · 06/12/2023 10:25

When my DS was 3 I woke him on Christmas morning with a huge ‘Happy Christmas!’ He ran straight to the window, looked out and said ‘but it’s not snowing…’
He was very confused!

Waitingfordoggo · 06/12/2023 10:26

@Rouleur, I know it happens- my brother still lives there- but it doesn’t usually stay for very long. If the OP has a job/other commitments, she might see that Hassocks has snow on a given day, decide to travel up the next day and snow potentially gone by the time she gets there 😂

I think the OP is just coming from the same perspective as me. We hardly ever see snow and so when it’s represented on telly/in books as being part of an English/British Christmas, we don’t really relate to it because we forget that other places still get snow 😂

But also, even the places who do often get snow don’t get a white Christmas very often.

Waitingfordoggo · 06/12/2023 10:28

I should add- it doesn’t bother me that I can’t relate to the representation! There’s lots of stuff on the front of Christmas cards that I can’t relate to!

housethatbuiltme · 06/12/2023 10:28

someladdersandsnakes · 06/12/2023 08:13

I also get annoyed by the lack of seagull representation in kid's media when there are so many ducks, and DD never saw a real duck until she was 3. I didn't start a thread about that though because that seemed much more specific to seaside towns! Maybe the snow thing is too.

We go to the seaside every year, south shield usually and there are copious amounts duck and swans in the park next to the seaside.

Plenty of places have ducks near the coast... the live on rivers, lakes, puddles, floods and pond. They are hardly illusive creatures or area specific.

Do you just never take your kid out of the house?

Rouleur · 06/12/2023 10:28

someladdersandsnakes · 06/12/2023 10:07

That's the single place I've been anywhere close to where I live that had ducks! Went there once this summer!

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OK, the snow thing I get you, it's a big ask to hop on a train in the middle of winter with a toddler to go and find snow, even if it is only a 10 minute journey. But Queen's Park, which is in central Brighton, has a duck pond. With plenty of ducks (and swans and geese and moorhens).

Chilicabbage · 06/12/2023 10:31

Might math might be wrong but covid started 2.5 years ago, not 5 years ago. So "A huge part of DD's early years was either lockdown or being cautious and not using public transport
So we weren't leaving our local vicinity much until she was close to 3" doesn't make sense if DD is 5.

housethatbuiltme · 06/12/2023 10:32

Also according to google a tonne of Cbeebies shows have had seagulls on... not surprising as many are set in beach towns.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=cbeebies+seagul

cbeebies seagul - Google Search

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=cbeebies+seagul

Locallady2 · 06/12/2023 10:36

I live in the south west near the coast and we've only had proper snow that settled on the ground once in my child's lifetime and he's seven. It snowed the other day but didn't settle.

He has had books with seagulls in them though and seen ducks 🤔

Original poster
someladdersandsnakes · 06/12/2023 10:38

Chilicabbage · 06/12/2023 10:31

Might math might be wrong but covid started 2.5 years ago, not 5 years ago. So "A huge part of DD's early years was either lockdown or being cautious and not using public transport
So we weren't leaving our local vicinity much until she was close to 3" doesn't make sense if DD is 5.

Covid started 4 years ago not 2.5 years ago.

OP posts:
DappledThings · 06/12/2023 10:39

Chilicabbage · 06/12/2023 10:31

Might math might be wrong but covid started 2.5 years ago, not 5 years ago. So "A huge part of DD's early years was either lockdown or being cautious and not using public transport
So we weren't leaving our local vicinity much until she was close to 3" doesn't make sense if DD is 5.

Eh? It's 4 years since it was in China. 3 and 3/4 years since UK lockdown started.

Original poster
someladdersandsnakes · 06/12/2023 10:40

housethatbuiltme · 06/12/2023 10:28

We go to the seaside every year, south shield usually and there are copious amounts duck and swans in the park next to the seaside.

Plenty of places have ducks near the coast... the live on rivers, lakes, puddles, floods and pond. They are hardly illusive creatures or area specific.

Do you just never take your kid out of the house?

Edited
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Believe me if there were any ducks in walking distance of my house I would know about it. I don't live in South Shields.

OP posts:
Chilicabbage · 06/12/2023 10:42

My bad. Didn't realise people took actual proper notice in UK until just before lockdowns. And yes, my math was wrong anyway, soz. Time flies

Original poster
someladdersandsnakes · 06/12/2023 10:45

Rouleur · 06/12/2023 10:28

OK, the snow thing I get you, it's a big ask to hop on a train in the middle of winter with a toddler to go and find snow, even if it is only a 10 minute journey. But Queen's Park, which is in central Brighton, has a duck pond. With plenty of ducks (and swans and geese and moorhens).

Show quote history

Yeah a few people have mentioned Queen's Park now. It's the other end of town from me and two buses away so I've never been there. My daughter HAS NOW SEEN DUCKS lots of times, we see them when we visit the grandparents in other towns. She just didn't see them when she was a toddler because we didn't go anywhere that wasn't walking distance.

OP posts:
Unbego · 06/12/2023 10:48

I'm now worried about the ducks in Brighton. What has happened to them all? Presumably they've not been eaten because everyone there is a vegan and/or a junkie. So what have they done with the ducks?!

Waitingfordoggo · 06/12/2023 10:52

They have probably been bullied out of town by the seagulls @Unbego. I can’t express how absolutely massive some of the seagulls are.

DragonMumE · 06/12/2023 10:54

We are snowing. It's snowed in last week. Police called critical incident. Blackpool nearby had sunshine.

Xiaoxiong · 06/12/2023 10:54

They might have killed each other off. Or seagulls ate them. Ducks are mean fuckers to each other but seagulls can eat a duckling in a single gulp.

I bet they didn't show that in the Snail and the Whale...

DragonMumE · 06/12/2023 10:55

@Xiaoxiong No, it'd be a bit frightening...