Like a lot of parents, I spend a LOT of time worrying about my kids and worrying about how to talk to them about ‘adult’ things. I have to admit that I have stolen a LOT of ideas from, or plunked my kids down in front of, Sesame Street over the years to help us work out questions or topics that come up. I just discovered a new series and character that Sesame Street has introduced this year really and they really knocked it out of the park for me. The series of short interactions shows new Muppet Karli, who is in foster care while her mother deals with addiction to opiods, speaking with Salia whose parents are also both in recovery from addiction. This isn’t something that my boys are dealing with directly, but there is addiction in our family and definitely within the circle of friends they have. It’s, sadly, not an uncommon thing in society today and that’s why I was so happy to see that Sesame Street has decided to address this their way. It’s important for kids dealing with parents in recovery to know they are not alone, and important for kids who AREN’T dealing with addiction fallout to know how to support their friends. I’ve posted the first video in the series below for you to see Salia and Karli’s introduction.
Lately, emotions have been an issue for my kids, trying to deal with and express these big emotions is a huge struggle for them. It’s particularly difficult when they don’t understand where the emotions are coming from in the first place. My kids don’t necessarily have the vocabulary to express it (which is surprising given the the words they come out with regularly, and use properly), and honestly I don’t have the words for how I’m feeling sometimes either. It’s easy to understand the frustration for kids, because we get frustrated with it as adults. You’d think we’d have learned how to deal with, and express, these emotions, but we haven’t. The second video I’ve posted deals with ‘Big Emotions’ and I really liked the idea presented in using ‘Feelings Flowers’. I’m not sure I can get my oldest behind the flowers, I may be able to use the idea, and perhaps have him do ‘Feelings Orcs’ or something along those lines.
If you are interested in the series and the resources that the Sesame Workshop has put together for it, check them out here.
