CBeebies presenter causes a stir
So there’s a new presenter on BBC kids channel CBeebies and she’s causing a bit of a stir.
Here she is doing the CBeebies bedtime song and here’s BBC news doing a feature on how she’s raised questions among young viewers about what happened to her hand.
Users of top parenting website Mumsnet picked up on a Daily Mail article on Monday. The BBC Message board is largely supportive of Burnell as are those on this Mumsnet thread. Eagle-eyed mumsnetters had spotted Cerrie when she first appeared at the beginning of the month. The Times’ Carol Midgeley picked up on it yesterday.
I am living in a relatively CBeebies-free zone these days, replaced by feature films old and new, so I can’t say we’ve even seen Cerrie. But a friend reports that her son simply calls Cerrie “Mrs Sausage Arms” and isn’t too worried either way.
It really is true: kids reflect whatever they pick up from others. If noone makes a big deal of someone having one arm or, say, being enormously fat, neither will the kids. They’ll notice it and ask questions, usually at the top of their voice when you’re approaching said one-armed or enormously fat person in the street, but they’ll be happy with the answer if you are. It’s having an answer and being happy with it that’s the problem. Especially when you know you’re being listened to by the person who’s prompted the child’s comment in the first place.
February 25th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
Apparently Cerrie is the “sausage arm lady”, according to a friend’s son. I try, but this accuracy thing is a real PITA on a hastily constructed and unrewarded blog.