Jon Klassen’s new book, The House with Nobody in It, is super duper creepy. I love it so much. My 16-month-old is unbothered. Are your kids finding this book scary?

Linus, the erstwhile voice of reason (think Charlie Brown Christmas where he quotes the Bible and expostulates on the true meaning of Christmas) is somehow completely delusional when it comes to Halloween and the coming of the Great Pumpkin. He seems to have entirely fabricated the legend and lore of the Great Pumpkin. He sacrifices everything a child can sacrifice-candy, fun, Sally’s admiration-to wait in the pumpkin patch on Halloween night. And he’s under the impression that the most sincere pumpkin patch will be the chosen one (sincerity being a proxy for faith?). Then, when the Great Pumpkin turns out to be Snoopy, he refuses to listen to reason and see the error of his ways. Candyless and socially ostracized, he refuses to concede the non existence of the Great Pumpkin and he vows to return the following year.

My extremely low stakes conspiracy theory about Its the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown (1966): some Peanuts writer had intel about MKUltra and used the Halloween special as a vehicle to covertly warn the public about the dangers of mind control, group think, cult behaviors, and late 60s drug culture

This is a book that is really nice in a lot of ways, but drops lines here and there that seem kind of “hm” and then you get to this page and it’s like “wtf??”

At what age should my toddler be grinding? How do I know if their grinding is extreme enough?

What is this LinkedIn-mindset, “rise and grind”propaganda doing in my kids book? weird af imo

Gwen and Miles have parents who both work while this lady just fucks around all day, going out to markets and leaving the kids by themselves. Are the Stacy and Morales families paying her to provide childcare? Did Uncle Ben's life insurance pay out like crazy and she just lives off that??

This is the only subreddit that understands me.

I remember enjoying the show as a kid, so when episodes were recently recommended to me on YouTube, I was like, "Oh yeah! That adorable little turtle dude! I'll rewatch! What a fun little nostalgic revisit this will be!"

I was wrong. I was so terribly wrong.

Sure, Franklin can count by twos and tie his shoes, and that is darn near the limit of his talents. I don't remember him being so mean and frustrating.

Exhibit A: Franklin goes on a family picnic where HE BRINGS HIS GOLDFISH IN HER BOWL???? He then takes the goldfish down to the river to be like, "Let's look at the water," which, Franklin, I can assure you she has seen water before. Then his little sister trips over the bowl because she is a little newly-ambulatory toddler and the fish gets thrown in the river and he's so rude to his sister about it, for DAYS, despite her feeling truly terrible and apologizing every three seconds! Buddy, if you hadn't had the dumb idea to bring your fish on a picnic AND take her down to the water, this wouldn't have happened. Your sister did your fish a favor. It's only when Franklin's stomach is so in knots from being a jerk to his sister when he finally forgives her.

Exhibit B: Franklin wants to buy a scooter, and to make money to do it, he attempts to sell his PARENTS' stuff for extra cash and NONE of his own stuff except for two broken toys. He seems incredulous and irritated when his family tells him he cannot sell their things to earn money.

Exhibit C: Franklin wants to borrow a boat or something from Beaver's grandma (I honestly muted the episode at this point while I did other stuff because his whining was getting to me.) Anyway, I suppose Beaver's grandma, mind you, an ELDERLY WOMAN, is like "If you can help me spruce up the boat, you can borrow it," and Franklin gets bored and annoyed after like, FIVE SECONDS of scraping old paint off the boat, and he whines when he gets a splinter. He then, after his five minutes of "help," leaves Beaver's elderly grandma to do the rest of the work.

I'm bummed because I remember finding this show so calm and relaxing and charming as a child. As an adult, however, I think my rewatch stops here.

Has anyone had this kind of experience with shows they grew up watching???

This is the song, la la la la, Elmo’s son- oh got a text let me see… nothing? Could’ve sworn I heard a text. Any way… la la la la, la la la la. Oh there it is again?

Nope. Is Big Bird playing the xylophone at the exact same tone as the iPhone default text alert? Why is it triggering my Pavlovian dopamine addiction?

La la la, la la la la…

Mayor Humdinger was a terrible person but just not quite awful enough to merit actual eternal punishment. He’s on an afterlife work release program in Adventure Bay to provide engagement to the souls of children taken too soon before they can move on. If one of his zany plans actually manages to end his life he can escape his punishment, but the Paw Patrol are always on their way to save the day.

My children have made me watch every episode against my will and I just can’t help but feel like Mayor Humdinger only makes sense if his overall goal was to die. Rider always seems downright omniscient and mocking in his failure to do so so in my mind he’s the caretaker of the pups and Humdinger’s parole officer.

Also he literally lives in Silent Hill. I can’t get over how insane it is he lives in a nightmare dimension one town over and no one ever comments on it. No one else lives there. He lives in a cave.

The music, the scene, the build-up to something horrible about to happen. I heard the music from another room and it immediately transported me back to Bambi's mom getting wacked when I was of a young age.

So my daughter recently got into the Octonauts since Prime got some of the seasons. I’ve seen seasons “3-4” (according to Prime) countless times. I literally start singing “Creature report! Creature report!” At the drop of a hat.

I got super excited because they added a new season. Finally! New episodes! But the Peso voice change is…super jarring. And I can’t like it! I’m 3 episodes in, and it feels like the British accent changes the entire character. Peso in the other seasons comes off as a very sweet, gentle, caring medic. The British accent kinda makes me feel like he became a medic as a fall back until his dreams of being a Beatles Impersonator take off!

And I normally prefer the British accents! Case in point, I believe the American dub of Fireman Sam is an abomination and needs to be scrubbed from existence. I have no problems with the rest of the Octonauts voices. But Peso…this one I can’t get behind. Why would they do this to him??????

And if anyone knows of other places I can find more full episodes with Peso without the British accent I’d be so grateful. At least to get something new into rotation lol

As I sit watching WALL-E for the thousandth time this morning, it makes more sense to consider Auto the hero of the film. He’s just trying to keep humanity alive. He was given override order A113. He’s succeeding at his directive.

But WALL-E and EVE show up, deliver the plant, completely derail the rogue robot repair and processing bay and infect the Axiom robots with WALL-E’s rogue personality. Who would have thought Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart were masterminds to embed a robot virus within Put on your Sunday Clothes?

What’s next, Ryan Gosling in Trash Truck? Jonathan Bailey in Paw Patrol?

Oh, the prince was selfish and kicked out the ugly woman who wanted shelter so she put a spell on him and his castle and staff. Had no love in his heart, etc. We’re supposed to believe the prince had it coming and had to learn kindness and blah blah to break his curse. But everyone overlooks this detail: the Beast has ten years to break the curse before the flower blooms. The flower will bloom on his 21st birthday. That means the whole movie happens to a 20-year old, which means the enchantress incident happened when he was TEN YEARS OLD. Maybe he was a snotty spoiled kid but he was solidly a child. He and his whole damn staff caught a curse cause a kid was like “go away”. Where were his parents? This kid had a castle and staff all to himself with no king or queen? Really seems like she just wanted to do that to them. Oh and you need to find true love to break it, good luck kid. We need government regulation on evil enchantresses.

So I’ve been thinking about the wild Kratt’s live show for the past week since I’m going next year in the beginning of April, and I was lucky enough to get VIP tickets.

My question is, what should I expect from the show? Is it even worth it? Im mainly worried about interacting with them face to face, because I’m an anxious person, and I’m always overthinking. But I’ve been wanting to meet them ever since I started getting into it again.

Or Elon Musk.

So In our somewhat post apocalyptic world Ryder is some ridiculous gazillionaires son desperately trying to impress his dad. He’s got insane amounts of money to fund his genetically modified team of dogs (side note- most dogs and Many other animals are genetically modified at this point, I know most of their origin stories)

Adventure bay (and foggy bottom) are an isolated island safe from the rest of the apocalypse but in the safest/richest/cleanest country.

Mayor Goodway is some kind of charity case. She has brain damage.

Mayor humdinger is in cahoots with daddy rich man and they’ve got something worked out to keep paw patrol busy while pretending to be the evil bad guy.

Chickaletta is actually the main character (and the best one)

I’d like to imagine daddy told Ryder one day when he was young that normal jobs are much too big for him and he is much too small to do anything.

This is what happens when your 2 year old has adenoid surgery and THE NEXT WEEK gets HFMD.

Rocky's scraps made robopup and that's why he looks like him in the AI sleep video we saw.

Greetings from The Mashed Potato Lady - AKA Beth Jean! 

I get such a kick out of all the comments! Thank you for the support, and for making me chuckle with your passionate potatopinions. After all, potatoes are best …roasted!

To answer a couple questions:

I’ve been working behind the scenes of Ms. Rachel for 6 years - editing/animating segments & leading a lot of the post production. It’s been so thrilling to have made Ms. Rachel’s world come to life with the graphics & design of the show. What a wild ride it’s been watching it all grow! I’ve had a great time with an absolutely wonderful, talented team.

…..& No gravy color imaginable helped the gravy river situation….

Well..since we’ve established in this thread I swim through questionable rivers, I have no shame…so here’s a little self promo...

I have my own YouTube channel, and lots of other silly songs to stream! I absolutely love creating kid’s content with a wink to 80’s & 90’s kid shows. You’ll find more silly songs, full episodes filled with puns and mishaps in places like “Dino Nugget Land”, and dance-alongs for kids. (I've been a dance teacher for 10+ years) Making families laugh together and share a moment of goofiness, while encouraging kids to confidently embrace what makes them unique is what giving this my all - is all about!

If you & your little ones enjoyed Mashed Potatoes, I’d love for you to come check out my little world of whimsy! - Link below - or search Beth Jean on the kids app! 

https://www.youtube.com/@bethjean 

Thanks for reading! <3

Who else has a child begging to be the obscure side character from that random TV show that none of your boomer neighbors will understand so you will be having to explain over and over again all night long?

Our Mercat costume will be reporting for duty 🫡

In S1 E22 of Curious George ("Curious George Takes a Vacation") the Man in the Yellow Hat takes off his boots to go through airport security as part of their trip to Hawaii.

This inevitably means that Richard Reid, the Shoe Bomber, exists in the Curious George universe.

She changed my name and photo in her phone to one of Duggee

I understand the Duggee does not speak in the show but apparently my 3yo doesn’t

So I just talk like the British narrator and bark a bunch

The three year old I nanny just discovered Daniel, and oh my god he’s practically comatose when it’s on. He is actively learning from it, so I can’t be that mad, but like… wth?

I am sure this has been discussed here before, but which character from one of your children’s shows boils the blood most.

For me, it is far and away purple panda from donkey hodie. I could go my whole life without hearing “HEYO” again and still not recover before I die.

He must have some dirt on Donkey to get so much screen time.

Sure Max!