Justin Fletcher Made My Son Cry

Yes, you read correctly.

The lovely Justin Fletcher - Mr CBeebies himself - made three year old Cash cry yesterday.

So how did this happen? Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

The boys were ill over the weekend. They had some virus or other. They were feverish, with sore throats and colds. Also, Cash vomited all over me and then all over his bed. Nice.

When this happens (after I've put the washing machine on) we make nests of towels on the sofa and switch on CBeebies. We have many programmes recorded on our PVR, mainly Bob the Builder, ZingZillas and the boys' new favourite, Iconicles. Four year old Presley in particular is mesmerised by it. He stands in front of the television as if it's his own Iconiscreen and seems to know every word to every episode. When the boys run in to wake us up every morning, they pretend they are Splish and Splash. Every squirrel they see is now called Skitter. Even Maisy's friend Cyril has been renamed.

I did an experiment two years ago.  I switched off the television and left it off for two months, only turning it back on when the boys were ill one day and I wanted to distract them. Even now it never goes on before 4pm. Then they can chose what they want to watch while I cook the tea.

Yesterday we had exhausted our cache of Iconicles episodes. I really couldn't face another, so we watched the CBeebies channel live.

The new programme, Justin's House, was on. After five minutes of watching Justin and his friends larking about Cash burst into tears. He looked terrified and said 'I don't want to watch this'. So that was that.

Were were invited to watch Justin's House being recorded.  It's filmed in front of an audience of children. On the show they all look like they're enjoying themselves, none of them are shrieking. I don't know what it was that upset Cash. I'm glad we couldn't make it to Salford now. Sorry, Justin. We still love Something Special.

We also like the new look CBeebies Grown-ups website, there is even a blog. I hope the BBC don't mind me using the photo of Justin's House. From the reaction of the parents on Twitter over the weekend, I think we were the only family that didn't love the new show.

I'll be sad when the boys grow out of CBeebies and I'll miss watching them laugh their heads off at the 'Spud the Hotel Manager' episode of Bob the Builder. I've almost perfected my Spud impression too.


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