Over the past few months, I’ve become a bit concerned over the lack of strong male role models in C’s TV viewing. There is a distinct lack of men on the shows that he watches, and all those good traditional masculine values (honor, courage, strength, competitiveness, etc.) are sorely under-represented. As much as I enjoy Little Einsteins, it’s still about kids being kids. In fact, virtually all the cartoons these days are about kids.

So, we looked around and discovered an old series called “Rescue Heroes”.  We picked up a DVD for it that had two episodes and a full length movie.

The episodes were pretty good. A bit heavy handed in the “let’s teach you a lesson” department, but that was okay. C was given some Rescue Hero toys for his birthday as well, and the combination worked. He was quickly drawn into playing with them.

All was good. It appeared as though we’d had another parenting success.

Then we watched the movie. It threw the Rescue Heroes into every catastrophe imaginable – earthquakes, floods, gargantuan storms, fires, you name it. We got to see Rescue Heroes falling off buildings, dangling from precipices, and running frantically from avalanches. There was even a poisoning (the leader).

The whole thing ended in a climactic scene involving hundreds of lightning bolts striking (and melting) a single tower.

After it was done, C looked over at me, round-eyed. “I don’t want to be a Rescue Hero.”

“No?”

He shook his head and hopped down off the couch. “No. I don’t want to be a Rescue Hero.”

Now whenever the issue comes up, he repeats that same refrain.

The annoying thing is that I can’t really blame him. Those guys really go through hell.