Caillou’s Mom, but in Real Life!
If you haven’t seen the cartoon Caillou, then you are missing out! You’re not missing out on anything good or educational, but you certainly are missing out on something that could make you question your inherent abilities as a mother. There are many funny moms in the world and there are many supportive ones, but Caillou’s mom is something of a misnomer. Because there’s something not quite right with her. She never gets angry, she makes massive sacrifices for her kids, and she lets Caillou get away with so much, so does Caillou’s mom exist in real life? Are we just jealous of her abilities to stay calm? Or is she the blueprint of how not to parent?
Why Does She Never Get Angry?!
We’ve all had to blow off steam, but Doris has never reprimanded her kids for anything, even in stressful situations. In one episode, Caillou’s parents overslept because the alarm didn’t go off, and rather than rushing around like a headless chicken Caillou’s mom gets up and wakes everybody up in a nice and calm fashion. Sure, maybe we all don’t need to overreact during these moments because it doesn’t achieve anything. But…
While everybody is getting ready, Caillou pointedly refuses to get dressed, steals Doris’ makeup, and starts to put it all over his little sister’s face. What does Caillou’s mom do? Calmly, she says “Caillou, you know that you’re not allowed to take mommy’s makeup.”
Is this how we’re supposed to parent children who are pushing boundaries? Throughout this whole debacle, the parents don’t raise their voices or even threaten to punish him. So why doesn’t she get angry? Is this what the perfect household is meant to be? Because we all know that from experience if we’re having a bad morning, a harsh tone is sometimes the only way to put a rocket up their butts! Many mom confessions over a glass of wine have certainly made people realize they’re not the only parents who have had to scream the house down approximately 7 minutes after waking up!
Because if Caillou’s mom is just not the type of parent who can bring herself to raise her voice, Caillou is going to run riot really soon! And we’ve seen how he’s an entitled little so-and-so in the same manner as Peppa Pig!
So our money’s on Doris eventually exploding in a frenzy of plate smashing, because bottling up all that frustration is going to come out in one way or another, right? Or, of course, maybe she’s just trying to be Zen, which may or may not involve a few glasses of wine in the evening. But maybe she’s just trying her best to discipline Caillou but it’s not hitting home. In the episode where Caillou’s mom is not happy with getting plenty of bills, she tells him she’s “too busy” to actually play with him.
Are We Supposed to Sacrifice Everything for the Sake of Our Kids Like Doris?
Your kids are your kids and you will lie down in traffic for them, but the parenting style put forth by Caillou’s mom is very much of the enabling style, rather than being a sacrificer. It seems that she is an enabler because she always lets Caillou get away with it. Of the many mom confessions out there, everyone has had times where they’ve wanted to just run away and have peace and quiet locked away in the bathroom.
Caillou’s mom is someone who has appeared to constantly sacrificed herself for the sake of the kids’ happiness, which has turned her more into a slave than anything else. And this means that if we have no boundaries and we are totally devoted to our kids, we will give an inch and they will always take a yard. Could this all this based on the theory that Caillou has cancer or alopecia? While this urban legend has been debunked, this would be a very logical reason why he gets away with so much.
What Would She Be Like in Real Life?
Doris is not one of those mothers that gives her children consequences. And any parent who doesn’t give their kids consequences soon finds themselves worn down. In real life, she would snap and she would probably become even more of a hardass.
It’s more than likely she would lose it one day. The fact that her behavior is somewhat passive-aggressive means that it’s not just Caillou who gets away with everything because he’s not clever enough to understand passive-aggressive behavior. Her husband gets away with a lot, too. But maybe she’s a master of passively-aggressively disciplining, and one day it will click, causing Calliou to become a child with many complexes… But that would also mean that Doris is a sociopath.
But hey, let’s spare a thought for Boris! Do you think that at night they talk about how they’ve let the oldest child get away with murder for far too long and tomorrow they’re going to lay down the law? Of course, in sitcoms, you see funny moms like Marge Simpson never letting Bart get away with anything. But it seems like Doris and Boris are actually intended to be taken as serious role models, as opposed to comedic characters.
The fact is that if the character of Calliiou’s mom Doris existed in real life, Caillou would gradually start to turn into a problem child and counseling would only be a couple of years away. But maybe we’re digging too much into this? Maybe she’s just trying to do right by him because he’s had a tough time. But this goes back to the urban legend that he had cancer, when this is not the case. So if she is just letting him do whatever he wants, what is this saying about setting boundaries?
Do You Know a “Caillou Mom?”
Because if we are trying to be a good mom we’ve got to remember that we are human and we are prone to a meltdown now and again. In fact, a “Caillou mom” seems to fit a certain archetype, the mom who used to have a life, and a good one! In the ringette episode, she says that she used to be the leader of the team in high school, so her dreams are possibly dust in the wind? But maybe it’s likely she’s trying one approach to parenting and has got stuck in a cycle that doesn’t seem to work. Maybe Calliou’s mom is doing the best she can and we should give her a little grace. Behind the scenes, she’s probably hiding in the pantry crying into her cheesecake like the rest of us.
Have you seen our MomCave LIVE Episode about how much we hate Calliou’s Mom?
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