When does liking a kid's show become unacceptable?

By "unacceptable" I mean socially. Objectively we have free will and you absolutely can just go and watch a kid's show right now; even if you personally find it not to be your taste, nothing out there is truly stopping you.

It's understandable why 'Cringe culture' is a thing. We as humans like being in tribes and being social, and it's human instinct to be afraid of and avoid isolation as much as possible. Because of this there are things like 'dos and don'ts' and a 'code of conduct' that man-kind has crafted in order to make a guideline of what should get someone exiled from the tribe, or what should someone be rewarded praise for.

I won't talk your ear off about rules, that's not the point! I'm talking about "childish interests" as much as I dislike that term personally, childish interests imply adultish interests which is what, working? drinking your sorrows away? I remember having a chat with my mom about this a year ago, and people usually develop a lot of their stronger interests and hobbies during childhood because they're more susceptible at that age.

Her explanation makes sense when I mentally backtrack and dig up my dustier memories. When I was a kid, cartoons were always playing on the TV and not really anything else. I didn't hate it though, I was invested in lots of the shows' storytelling. I've learned how to draw and I liked making stories because of this. Today at my 'less-than-acceptable-to-watch-cartoons' age I still would rather watch a cartoon than a live action show, even if the subject matter is more juvenile because of the west treating animation as a kid's thing.

Because of cringe culture I am ashamed to admit that even after hiding it and pretending to others that I don't care about them anymore for years at this point, but I still feel like I'd sweep this under the rug if cringe culture wasn't a problem too. Such things as a 'target audience' make me embarrassed especially if it's in a more younger age group; age ratings are supposed to be objective as possible, so if I like something that's "meant for kids" it truly does make me feel immature.

One thing I've noticed in cartoon fan spaces is that people tend to defend themselves and their interests a lot. Usually saying stuff like "It's for all ages!" or "It's very deep and tackles serious topics so of course adults can watch it!" I personally hate cartoon reviewers because of this, what they're talking about is literally just a show to entertain kids and they sound corny for trying to convince you it's for adults... I'm definitely not the one to talk but with how delicate these glass walls are around me, I'm rattling and hurling my most sharpests of stones in my convenient rock collection.

Maybe I'm being too niche with my selection or I just have the wrong opinion but I feel like cartoon fans flock to certain shows more than others, especially the ones that had that have a more story-driven plot or have a singular small serious moment that gets overanalyzed... Or it just got lucky to have many kids watch it at the same time and said kids are now adults. Unless if I'm just entertained that easily but I can easily chow down on shows that don't go anywhere chronologically because I know I can start watching on any episode instead of being confined to only watching a more story-driven show in a linear sense.

The more I think about it I feel like cartoon fans are a bunch of insecure people wanting their interest to be taken seriously. Something called 'wanting to give up on childhood interests in order to be more mature' which is ironically a childish habit most older adults tend to grow out of. I personally experience that phenomenon myself but I feel a small part of me crosses their arms and go "I don't care what others think about me" which I wish I could hold that sentiment with full confidence.

I know in the grand scheme of things nobody is going to care but I think I must come clean to what I waste my time watching because I've been hiding it this whole time, it might also be why I believe to be a boring person 'tis because I actually just spend most of my days in front of my computer watching this show instead of doing something productive... I watch Hey Duggee, and I'm guilty for choosing my online name to be after one of the main characters. I might have to take this one to the grave because the fandom for that show seems to be pretty small.

It's not a meaningful show and it won't change your life, one might just call it inoffensive fluff. The intro and theme song are really stupid but I can't help it but never ever bother myself to skip the intro as I'm tranced by it, the best I can describe it is that it's like granulated sugar to both my eyesight and my hearing. I'm not here to convince you to watch the show as it's a show made for preschoolers for a reason. It's going to have a 4th wall breaking narrator and very colorful visuals.

I'm still not convincing, but I just find this show really cute and I like it more than Bluey that has more fans and gets way more praise online, not like that's a problem but this show kind of just gets ignored in cartoon fan spaces, maybe because no "serious and dark topics" get tackled in that show so nobody gives a ship about it. I want to get plushies of the characters but knowing how secretive I am with this show and with my interests in general that's pretty much a pipe dream of mines.

My (unecessary, and is kind of just here to make this blog seem fuller) backstory is that I randomly watched a singular episode when I was 8 years old, I liked it so much that I started to obsessively watch every other episode that could be offered to juvenile me in 2017 AD, maybe the animation was laced with crack but I was definitely older than a preschooler when I watched Hey Duggee for the first time. Unfortunately I binge watched the show on the LIVING ROOM TV so my real life peers knew about my interest, I consider it an absolute miracle that it's been so long that they have actually forgot about it.

My favorite character of that show is Nor... oh, that's the character I based my online name off of, this is awkward. I might aswell end this blog since the title seems irrelevant now. You can say I tricked you into reading this just so I can blabber about watching a niche british show lmfao.