Dora Meets Danger-Why Are Cartoon Parents so Careless?

Parental incompetence is seemingly at an all-time high. Young children left unattended to play for prolonged periods of time is becoming the social norm. A quick glance at popular children's shows, and this newly-evolved parenting trend becomes readily apparent.

Take Dora, for example. She's 3, and yet her daily agenda consists of swimming in snake-infested waters without a vile of antivenom and scaling large mountains that would make a seasoned Mount Everest veteran queasy. Who could forget the episode where she carefully made her way down a rickety, dilapidated wooden ladder? When her cousin Diego, made his debut performance last fall, true to his familial legacy, it was obvious he suffered a similar fate of parental incompetence and ultra-permissiveness. Their joint adventures involving rescuing wild animals or any of their numerous parentless excursions hardly elicited a call to Child Protective Services.

Dora, by no means, represents the exception but the rule. Emily Elizabeth is repeatedly left unattended to waste the day riding around on the back of a somewhat clumsy, oversized, and energetic product of bad canine breading- Clifford. Her parents, who make an occasional appearance, obviously never heard of rabies or the dangers of dangling 30 feet above the ground unrestrained in a child-safety seat. Perhaps, they're friends of Michael Jackson or Britney Spears.

Cartoon parents in previous decades appeared far more guarded in their approach to child rearing. At least the gang from Scooby Doo was of legal driving age before they were permitted to tour haunted mansions and nab robbers and other undesirables. (Don't police and other so-called "safety" experts routinely warn civilians against attempting to apprehend suspects?)

I suppose the parenting trends emulated on Dora and Clifford are hardly new but just the modern manifestation of a high-tech era. Who knows, perhaps Dora's parents were misguided by a savvy salesman and were mistakenly led to believe her talking backpack was intended to serve as some sort of sophisticated GPS tracking device?

I grew up on a steady flow of Pippi Longstocking, both in television shows and books. As an 8-year-old, I envied her freedom tremendously. Her dad, a pirate, was at sea for what seemed like months on end, and she was left to play uninterrupted with her pet monkey. My parents' generation, during the 40s and 50s, actually got the highly desired freedom of parentless outings that is showcased on today's cartoons. Coming of age in an era where parental supervision was unheard of, they were simply reminded to return home for lunch on a summer's day.

Despite my frustrations with Dora's and Emily Elizabeth's parents, I dutifully tune in to each episode because my 4-year-old has enjoyed these shows for over 2 years. I realize, though, that as a 2-year-old she more eagerly agreed with whatever excuses I could muster about why Dora's parents were not in any of the episodes. As she gets older, I tend to just yawn and remind her that it is just T.V. I'm endeared by the realization that my explanations will likely suffice for at least a couple more years but will lose credibility long before the dreaded time when I become an embarrassment for my child to be around. For now, I'll savor every last minute of parental neglect and poor judgment that her favorite cartoons showcase daily. The excitement she gets from assisting Dora and Map, her ability to deter Swiper the Fox, and the unique choreography she performs to the Clifford theme song make it well worth every minute.