Two fathers

[franceslievens]

More than once the Dutch have been called "progressive". Being one of the first countries to legalise gay marriage, they face no problem whatsoever to bring the idea of a kid with two fathers into mainstream media. And what better way than to have a children's choir sing a song about it? (Link to YouTube video. Song in Dutch with English subtitles.)

Kinderen voor Kinderen actualy is a Dutch institution. The choir started in 1980 and was conceived as a fundraiser, hence called "Kinderen voor Kinderen" or "Children for Children". I grew up on the songs and can still sing my favourites along. So try to picture my surprise when I noticed the link to the above video on Crooked Timber. My childhood "idol" makes it into the mainstream blogosphere.

Most of the songs feature typical children's problems: bullying, fights with other kids, divorce, scary things, love sickness... I still use them in my classes, because the themes are very close to the subjects I teach the little ones. The ideas for the songs come from kids. Anyone can send in a letter or a text about any subject. That's how new themes like "Two Fathers" find their way into the songs of 2005. And that's how Kinderen voor Kinderen stays up to date.

But I'll probably never be able to forgive them for the creepy song about (soon going to start) having your period.

Comments

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

Yep, the Dutch are usually seen as progressive here and you give good reasons, but the other day I saw something on Ned 2 that I found a little disturbing. There was this big choir of young people including rather confused-looking three- to four-year-olds. They were singing Christian songs and some of them were extremely military in style along the lines of "We're marching for Jesus" and what I could glean from the Dutch subtitles also sounded quite violent... So, you had these sweet angelic kids saluting, marching and singing and so on.

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

The Dutch public broadcasting has a network system: there are different networks that have their days of broadcasting on the 3 public channels. I bet you were watching the EO (Evangelische Omroep), which is the network of the Evangelists. When I was a kid they used to broadcast on Wednesday afternoon, the moment when Belgian children were watching Dutch telly, because of the children's programs. But there was nothing nice on, when it was EO. Usually someone trying to explain the bible to children. Horrible, I tell you.

Then I loved the independent broadcaster Veronica much more. Their children's programs were always very funny, and a bit naughty. It all went downhill with them when they stepped out of the networking system and started their own channel, though.

And then there's Yomanda, a very controversial "healer" and medium. She is scary!

But I haven't watched Dutch networks for ages, since we don't have cable television and hence only can watch the two Flemish networks, and two Belgo-French ones, if I try really hard.

P.S.: Flemish children's tv has made lots of progress since the dark ages when I was a kid. Dutch children now watch it, instead of Flemish children watching Dutch telly.