Growing up, I almost never missed Sesame Street – Big Bird was one of the best characters and I loved his talks with Mr. Hooper – and oh, who couldn’t fall in love with Cookie Monster, clumsy Grover, or snuggly Mr. Snuffleupagus? My boyfriend’s partner Brett and his wife Melissa took their two kids to a Sesame Street event this past week. I remember last year (November 2009), New York City (where I live) proclaimed November 10th “Sesame Street Day” in New York. Who wouldn’t want to? After all, New York City is the inspiration for Sesame Street. The brownstone at 123 Sesame Street was inspired by the buildings along Amsterdam Avenue. The Sesame Street subway station was modeled after the original 72nd Street subway station. (In case you didn’t know, Sesame Street just last year, celebrated its 40th birthday!)
Harris, 3-years-old and Evyn, 17-months-old. Adorable right?
Hearing about Brett and Melissa taking their kids to see Sesame Street made me start to wonder: Do our favorite Sesame Street characters as children provide a looking glass into our personalities as adults/parents?
I’m not really sure if anyone has done this research, but it makes sense that there would be connections between our favorite Sesame Street characters as children and now as adults. For example, my mom says she always has loved Oscar the Grouch because she says she can be grouchy. Or even my nephew Wade used to love Elmo and his personality always reminds me of being ticklish and giggly.
It’s more likely that we indentify with the character we’re similar to. To be honest, there are so many characters now on Sesame Street; it would be impossible not to relate to one! According to Dr. William Braun, a child psychoanalyst in NYC, “Oscar has positive attributes, too. Even though he’s the pessimist, there’s something that we like about him. You can take that negatively, but we all have these characters in us. We might have a more predominant personality type, but every once in a while we’re all a little Oscar, or we’re a little Elmo.”
I love the humanity of Sesame Street. I personally feel it connects to any kid anywhere in the world, and every parent, grandchild and even grandparents! I look forward to watching it with my kids one day. Re-live some of your best Sesame Street video and click here:
http://www.sesamestreet.org/onair/history/videos
Who is your favorite Sesame Street character?
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