Is SpongeBob Appropriate?
As a single father of a seven-year-old girl, I always have to keep a keen eye on what she’s watching on television. And believe me, I’m not a big “T.V. Guy”, and actually, I’m not all that big on my daughter watching it at all, but again, I’m a single dad and I can’t always be spending one-on-one time with her. So I have to decide what she can actually watch. SpongeBob Squarepants is one of the programs that I do allow her to watch, and I’ll explain why I feel it’s appropriate.
Sure SpongeBob and his friend Patrick argue a lot and they do call each other things like “stupid” and “idiot” occasionally. And sometimes the phrase “shut up” enters the scene. I certainly do not approve of my daughter to use any of these phrases or words. But what I did when she first started watching the show was: I watched it WITH her and pointed these things out. I explained to her that those things were inappropriate and that it was just a television show. I also told her that people (and sponges) aren’t perfect and that sometimes we say things we don’t mean when we’re angry. That of course doesn’t make it “OKAY”, but it does make us human.
There are things that we go through with our friends in our lifetimes that hurt, just like with SpongeBob and Patrick.
The wonderful thing about this program is that the two friends ALWAYS make up, and they’re not mean-spirited.
There are a bunch of shows on television that are very sarcastic, and the main characters are disrespectful toward authority figures. But not on SpongeBob, and that’s another hugely positive thing about the program.
Thumbs up from me!
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