Armageddon: Nickelodeon Considering Spears Pregnancy Special

Hosted by no other than hard core lib Linda Ellerbee:

NEW YORK (AP) - Nickelodeon is considering a special for its young audience about sex and love following the news that 16-year-old "Zoey 101" star Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant.

The television network has made no announcement about the future of "Zoey 101," its popular program aimed primarily at youngsters aged 9- 14. Filming for the show's fourth and final season has finished, and episodes are scheduled to begin airing in February.

For the special, Nickelodeon said it's talking with Linda Ellerbee, the veteran newswoman who has stepped in frequently in the past with shows on talking to children about difficult issues in the news. She's done shows about same-sex parents, AIDS, the Columbine shooting and President Clinton's impeachment scandal.

Let's recap, shall we? Spears is sixteen, is pregnant and plays a young teen on a popular show that's produced and shown on a station for kids. No, not necessarily teenagers, kids as young as nine.

I wrote yesterday about the issue and interestingly I received a comment that I find interesting and I'll deal with it now. Mary writes:

Maybe I'm unconventional, but why not just tell your daughter the truth. Let her ask questions and answer them honestly. By arming her with such information, you protect her from making the mistake of looking up to celebrities who are nothing more than entertainers. We are the ones turning them into role models.

First off Mary, my daughter is nine, in my opinion much to young to be discussing pregnancy but a subject we were forced to broach because of Spears actions. Call me a prude but nine is an age when girls should be thinking of things other than pregnancy--things like maybe playing with baby dolls not contemplating having real ones.

Isn't it time parents quit expecting tv and movie stars to be the role models and began modeling the behaviors they expect themselves?? I don't hide issues and events from my kids. I think it is an injustice to children to mollycoddle them.

I don't expect stars to be role models and I subscribe to the Charles Barkley approach when he said that parents should be role models, etc. However, kids are going to watch TV from time to time and one would hope that when I turn on a station that sells itself as being for kids, I won't have to deal with such issues. Maybe I'm a little old-fashioned, which would be funny since I'm only 39, but if I allow my daughter to watch a supposedly age-appropriate show and the star of that show is now pregnant (through unprotected sex mind you), it raises my hackles a bit.

I don't "mollycoddle" my kids, they've had to deal with the death of a close relative this week and we explained everything about it to them. That said, my original point stands; is there anything my daughter can watch?

They have to live in the very same world we do. They should know what is out there and what is going on. Or would you rather they learn it from peers and tv stars?

That's an inane question and my response would be this: at what age should kids know everything? 9? 5? 24-months?

How about we protect them from certain things until they are actually mature enough to discuss them and understand the relevance. My daughter knows how a baby is conceived but do I really want her to think it's cool to actually conceive one because a star on a show she likes has done it?

Sorry Mary, we were forced to explain this to her when it seemed to me to be too young. I would hope that at the risk of mollycoddling them you didn't tell them anything at too young an age.