Thank you, Mister Rogers

September 13, 2001 4:14 PM

Thank you, Mister Rogers The man in the sweater puts it all in perspective for us : One of the most important messages we can give our children is, "It's okay to be angry, but it's not okay to hurt." Anger is a natural and normal feeling, in families and among friends. Besides allowing children the right to their anger, we can also help them find constructive things to do with their angry feelings -- things that don't hurt others or themselves or damage things. By showing children how to deal with their angry feelings in healthy ways, we are giving them useful tools that will serve them all life long and helping them to be the world's future peacemakers.
posted by likorish (7 comments total)

I <heart> mr rogers.
posted by rebeccablood at 4:32 PM on September 13, 2001

Good ol' Mr. Rogers. My daughter is only 15 months old, so Mr.R will be off the air by the time she's old enough to watch him, but I'm hoping we can catch reruns. Seems like a mandatory part of being a kid.
posted by marknau at 4:43 PM on September 13, 2001

thank you, likorish... I've been looking for a page like this for three days now. That it comes from Mr. Rogers makes it all the better. On behalf of all my nephews and nieces, *thank* you.
posted by realjanetkagan at 5:45 PM on September 13, 2001

this just about made me cry. my goodness. can we clone this guy? future generations need him. i want to be watching "mr. roger's mars colony" in 2050.
posted by kevspace at 6:19 PM on September 13, 2001

"It's okay to be angry, but it's not okay to hurt."

There's a lesson that everyone really needs right now. Especially all the people in this country calling for revenge and all of the people in the other countries whooping it up because we were attacked.
posted by briank at 7:40 PM on September 13, 2001

did you all know that mr roger was a sniper in the army??and had over 100 comfirmed kills. he is a american hero!!!!!
posted by iac6969 at 8:06 PM on September 13, 2001

Fred Rogers is a wonderful man. marknau, your daughter will still be able to be part of his neighbourhood, they'll still be showing old shows, just no new ones.

We've talked to our 6yo son about this, and I've said pretty much the same thing - it's okay to be angry, but don't let that control you. Tonight I sat and talked to him again about not painting entire groups of people with the same brush just because of their skin color, or religion, or home country. This is something I felt had to be done to combat the images we're seeing on TV and in person from people around us.
posted by SiW at 9:48 PM on September 13, 2001