Gotta love me baby dinosaur


"I'm the Baby (Gotta Love Me)" Is a Prehistoric Earworm

By Brett White

Twitter @brettwhite

Where to Stream:

Dinosaurs

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It took a while, but Dinosaurs is finally streaming on Disney+. The show disappeared from Hulu a while back, and we’ve been living without the Sinclair family and their deeply silly yet politically aware humor even since. And now that it’s streaming on Disney+ (alongside an expanding library of classic Jim Henson content), millennial parts can finally revisit this bizarrely charming series and subject their kids to it.  Of course, revisiting Dinosaurs means revisiting the kooky, inexplicable single “I’m the Baby (Gotta Love Me).”

If you journey back in time to pop culture prehistory, you’ll find the fossils of so many tie-in singles. CDs were relatively new and finally affordable, so every TV show wanted in! The Simpsons released an album with the single “Do the Bartman” (featuring Michael Jackson), the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles went on Oprah to promote their concert tour and promotional Pizza Hut album “Coming Out of their Shells,” and The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer both dropped soundtracks “inspired” by the shows. That’s not even taking into account all the CDs compiling TV theme songs (or muzak, knock-off versions) from 40 years of TV history. So yeah, when you put it that way, of course this catchphrase-stuffed sitcom about a family of generic dinosaur puppets had to have a tie-in album!

That album was “Big Songs,” released in October 1992 and tied to the Season 3 Halloween-inspired episode “Little Boy Boo. ” When the main plot of “Little Boy Boo” concludes (Robbie tells a story about a dino-teen turning into a were-man), that’s when the party starts. And that’s when Baby Sinclair cashes in on all that fame he’d accrued over the past year and a half.

“I’m the Baby (Gotta Love Me)” is completely ridiculous, even by ’90s commercial tie-in standards. Instead of going full new jack swing like “Do the Bartman” or doing hard rock for kindergartners like the Ninja Turtles, the Jim Henson crew decided to drop their immensely popular rascal and give him an anthem that’s a straight-up, aw sucks showtune. It’s like the upbeat, banjo-driven B-side of Kermit’s “Rainbow Connection.” It’s so out of place with what was going on in music at the moment. For example, hit songs of fall 1992 include “End of the Road” by Boyz II Men, “Erotica” by Madonna, and “Free Your Mind” by En Vogue. Do you hear any of that in this? There is an obligatory rap breakdown in “I’m the Baby” but it’s pint-sized and includes the line “I take every chance to make a poop in my pants.

Is “I’m the Baby (Gotta Love Me)” a bop? Depends on how wide your definition of “bop” is. I mean, if I’m using the term “bop,” I figure it’s gotta be pretty wide by now—wide enough to include a little ditty about a baby dinosaur puppet who knows how to manipulate his family by pushing the limits society has set for a parent’s unconditional love. He’s the baby and you literally have to love him! It’s a peculiar tie-in to an even more peculiar show, and it’s even more peculiar-ier when you look at the pop culture that surrounded it. We know why “I’m the Baby (Gotta Love Me)” happened ($$$), but we may never know why it happened like this.

Once you’re done listening to “I’m the Baby,” you can always check out the rest of Dinosaurs‘ “Big Songs” on YouTube. Who knows—one of these could be your song of the summer.

Stream Dinosaurs  on Disney+

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“It’s interesting to dig up bones”: why children love dinosaurs and what psychologists think about it

Life with children

“It’s interesting to dig up bones”: why children love dinosaurs and what psychologists think about it

Artem Sokolov

January 29, 2018 19 :17

Many of us adored dinosaurs as children, and literally everyone knows at least one child who is passionate about this topic. Afisha Daily figured out the reasons for this love with the help of scientists, a child psychologist and a boy obsessed with dinosaurs.

Most children become interested in dinosaurs between the ages of two and six, and many of them know more than a dozen scientific names of ancient animals and can talk about each one. Dinosaur fascination is so massive that even if your child is not into dinosaurs, you can easily name someone who is in love with them.

Experts call such behavior the term intense interest, or, in Russian, sustainable interest. According to scientists, such a psychological feature exists in about a third of modern children. Often their attention is also attracted by vehicles - cars, trains, planes.

I became interested in dinosaurs when I was 4 years old: my grandfather gave me a children's book about them. At first, before I learned to read, my parents read books to me. Then I myself began to look for information about them.

At first I collected dinosaur figurines, but it was always important to me that they were real dinosaurs. Now you can find a lot of figurines from manufacturers who themselves come up with what a dinosaur should be like - paws, scales, claws - but in fact they can’t even give a name. It is in China that such nonsense is often released. Now I have more than 200 dinosaur models in my collection.

I regularly go to the paleontological museum, I have been to dinoparks in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Istanbul, Prague. Since the age of 10, I have been studying in the paleontological circle at the Biological Museum. Timiryazev. I read various news on paleontology, I dream of going to the USA - there are many interesting museums there, there is even the largest and most complete T-rex skeleton, which was called "Dinosaur 13". A film was even made based on this find of the century, I met with director Tod Miller in Moscow.

Once in Sunday school I was scolded: they said that there were no dinosaurs, it's all fiction. I replied that if God could create a man, then it was no problem for him to create a dinosaur.

I think we like dinosaurs so much because they are very different and very beautiful. They can be explored from a very young age. In some parks, special excavation models are made, and it's interesting to sit and dig up bones, collect skeletons from them. I hope one day mankind will be able to restore the dinosaurs. Only they will behave more carefully, and not like in the movie "Jurassic World".

Children of past generations were also interested in dinosaurs, but in the modern world their involvement in the topic has changed. Movies about dinosaurs were in the 80s and 90s, illustrated books on the subject have been around for a long time, but today you can see huge moving models of dinosaurs and even watch real paleontologists at work (as, for example, at the Museum of Natural History in Los Angeles). Also in the modern world, scientists continue to regularly make discoveries: in 2016 alone, 30 previously unknown species of dinosaurs were discovered.

American paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara suggests that children are interested in dinosaurs because they want to earn authority among adults: “I don’t know how they remember so many names of dinosaurs, but it seems to me that this is the first opportunity for them to be an expert in any field . Adults can think of three or four dinosaur names, while children can easily name two dozen. It helps you feel strong."

Kelly Ken, a pediatric psychotherapist, agrees with this theory. A study published in the journal Cognitive Development in 2008 states that sustained interest in a conceptual field such as dinosaurs promotes information processing skills, self-confidence and perseverance. The same study states that children with sustained interest tend to be more intelligent at an older age.

Cathy Johnson, a cognitive psychologist in Indiana, supports a colleague and states that conceptual interests form the basis for later learning. Gaining experience in any field is a manifestation of cognitive competence, which becomes a determining factor in self-esteem. A detailed knowledge of dinosaurs can make a child more confident when they take on a new topic, she says.

The school becomes the main enemy on the way to the development of a sustainable interest. Education alone does not cause kids to stop loving dinosaurs. And although school education gives a very average idea of ​​the world around, in the first years of study it also opens up new horizons. “There are more things to do in life, and the child realizes that there are many other interesting things around,” says family psychologist Elisabeth Chatel.

In addition, when a child comes to school, he begins to realize that not everyone around admires his special knowledge. The attitude of adults towards children is also changing. If earlier relatives paid attention to children's interests and supported them in every possible way, then at school the emphasis is shifted to subjects common to all students, and parents are more interested in grades. Dependent on the opinions of adults, schoolchildren first gradually move away from the object of their interest, and then completely forget about it. At the same time, under the influence of peers, the child develops new stable interests. As psychologist Joyce Alexander notes, many children may suppress their own hobbies in order to build friendships with classmates. And scholar Randy Kullman says American schoolchildren often have a common passion for playing Minecraft or LEGO, which helps them make friends.

Although the vast majority of parents support about 92% of the sustainable interests of children, according to the book Planes, Trains, Automobiles — and Tea Sets: Extremely Intense Interests in Very Young Children, there are those who try to limit their passion and direct it in a different direction. There is a known case when parents forbade a boy to pretend to be a dinosaur, because parents of his peers complained about his excessive activity. Sometimes adults try to artificially instill certain interests in their child - playing musical instruments, playing sports, dancing or martial arts, reading books - however, according to scholar Randy Kullman, this approach does not bode well. “It’s better to let the child understand some process so that he can then return to it with interest on his own,” Kullman believes. In addition, he is sure that one should not worry about excessive passion for things that are not the most useful, from the point of view of parents, because one stable interest can very soon be replaced by another.

At the age of 3-4 years, the child develops a steady interest in identifying cause-and-effect relationships, he asks many questions “why?” And How?". Vehicles, for example, trains, planes, cars, are a very rich material for understanding the world of objects and space. Big, impressive cars that a person can drive is a puzzle that a child wants to solve by driving toy vehicles.

As for dinosaurs, I can assume that the child's steady interest in dinosaurs is connected with his internal psychological need to play scary at this age. Games with frightening impressions help to form one's own image, study one's emotions, and teach self-regulation (tension and relaxation). At this age, no less than dinosaurs, children like fairy tales about Baba Yaga, an evil wolf, aliens and other "horrors", because these stories and games help to find support in themselves, to be afraid in the safe space of a game or fairy tale.

Most parents are comfortable with the fact that the child has some kind of narrow interest, if this interest is gradually replaced by another. The parents of those children who have been fixated on one thing for years and are completely not interested in everything else are worried. If the narrowness of choice also applies to other areas of life: routes (walks only this way, a step to the left is a scandal), food (eats only certain foods), clothes (it is impossible to change clothes when the season changes), then parents usually turn to a psychologist for help.

If a child is diagnosed with autism, then he really has a fairly narrow range of interests. On the one hand, it makes life difficult. On the other hand, it can be a great motivation for learning. For example, in our Center for Curative Pedagogics, a boy was studying to read according to the metro scheme (he was a fan of the subway) and mastered reading much faster than his peers.

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Psychological explanation of children's love for dinosaurs

Erin, Susan Alloway's daughter, has a very special Halloween costume. It wasn't just a dinosaur: a six-year-old girl wanted to be an osraptor.

For reference: Ozraptor is a dinosaur, it belongs to the subfamily of Abelisaurus, a suborder of theropods that lived on the territory of modern Australia in the Middle Jurassic.

This is definitely not a costume that you can easily buy in the nearest shop.

“I searched the Internet and found nothing. There were two pictures with ozraptors. My daughter said that it should have real feathers, so I used a lot of them. At the celebration, no one understood what kind of costume it was, but she didn’t care, ”says Alloway.

Erin's love for dinosaurs began as soon as she was four years old. Her mother doesn't remember what sparked her interest, but today her favorite spot is the large dinosaur bookshelf in the local library. “She loves that there are endless books and tons of information. She loves long dinosaur names. She likes to learn about different prehistoric periods. She always lacks knowledge and always needs more.”

It's almost a universal rule: kids love dinosaurs. Unless you were obsessed with dinosaurs as a child, you almost certainly know someone who loved them. These guys are ready to give out the scientific names of dozens, if not hundreds, of dinosaurs. They will tell you what these creatures ate, what they looked like, where they lived. They know the difference between the Mesozoic era and the Cretaceous period. A child's level of knowledge about dinosaurs can be staggering, especially considering that the average adult is willing to name a dozen dinosaurs at best.

Scientists call these obsessions "intense interest." Researchers don't know exactly what sparks it - most parents can't remember the moment or event that triggered it. However, in almost a third of all children, this moment usually occurs between the ages of 2 and 6, although in some it continues into later life. The most common "intense interest" is vehicles: planes, trains, and cars. Dinosaurs is the second most popular category, which comes by a wide margin.

The degree of interest does not depend on the generation. The Lost World set off dino fever in the 1970s, while Jurassic Park and The Land Before Time set off in the 1990s. Dinosaur obsession is as common today as it was when you were a child. The only difference is in the numbers: in 2016 alone, more than 30 new species of dinosaurs were discovered, that is, there are now more than 700 potential favorites. In 2005, he discovered a giant herbivorous dinosaur in southern Patagonia (the territory of modern Argentina - approx. New what ). The paleontologist called this creature the size of a two-story house and the weight of a Boeing 737 a dreadnought. Lacovara is now director of the Jean and Rick Edelman Fossil Park at Rowan University. Visitors constantly tell him about their kids who are crazy about dinosaurs.

He hears again and again from his parents: “They can name them all! I don't understand how they remember them. " But Lacovara knows how, at least he has some hypotheses about it. “I think for many of these kids, this is the first opportunity to feel like an expert in something, to tell something that their parents, coach or doctor don’t know. This gives them a sense of power. When mom or dad can name three or four dinosaurs, and a child can name twenty, he feels like a real authority.

For children, intense interests are an important factor in building self-confidence, agrees Kelly Chen, a specialist in child psychiatry and occupational therapy at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Such hobbies are extremely beneficial for cognitive development. A study conducted in 2008 showed that intense interests increase mindfulness and persistence, increase knowledge of the world, and also form the skill of deep information processing. Especially useful are activities related to the study of concepts - for example, with dinosaurs. In short, it makes kids smarter and helps them learn better. Decades of scientific research supports the hypothesis: three separate studies have shown that older children who have intense interests tend to have above-average intelligence.

It turns out that a passion for dinosaurs is a kind of opportunity for a child to learn a new topic in the way that is most familiar to him - through play. “They ask questions, look for answers to them, improve their knowledge, in fact, organize the learning process,” says Chen. “It is useful to have the ability to research a topic and become a real expert in it, because this is how adults build their careers. The main activity of children is play, as for adults it is work. So the children “play work”, immersing themselves in a topic that interests them.”

It is perhaps no coincidence that the period of development of heightened interest in something partially coincides with the time when almost all the child's games are based on imagination (from 3 to 5 years). Michael Bridges, 30, a New York City data scientist, says he was crazy about dinosaurs in first grade. He literally devoured all the books about dinosaurs from the school library, and then began to write his own, supplying them with illustrations. In second grade, he constantly told adults that he wanted to be a paleontologist.

“I couldn't believe such huge creatures had actually ever lived on Earth,” Michael says. “I wanted to dig them up and prove to myself that they really existed. As a child, you feel so small, and dinosaurs could be up to 9 meters tall. It would be hard to imagine anything more amazing."

However, by the third grade, his passion for paleontology faded. This is normal: for most children, increased interest develops rapidly and ends quickly. In 2007, scientists conducted a study. According to data received from the parents of 177 children, their hobbies lasted from 6 months to 3 years.

There are several reasons why children stop being actively interested in a certain topic, and one of the most important is, ironically, school. It is believed that when they enter the traditional educational environment, they must achieve results in several subjects at once, and there is simply no time and energy left for an in-depth study of something.

“It doesn't mean that students are abruptly dropping their hobby and saying, 'That's it, I hate dinosaurs now,'” explains Elizabeth Chattle, a family psychologist in Norwalk, Connecticut. “So many new things appear in life, a whole world opens up before them, they are already occupied with other topics.”

There is also an important social component in the fading of heightened interest. Children communicate with their peers every day and begin to understand that not everyone reads about dinosaurs all day long.

“Perhaps the hobby was encouraged at home. The child constantly heard from his parents: “Johnny knows that this is a pterodactyl, Johnny is so smart!” When you are praised every day for your knowledge, you literally want to escape to this land of dinosaurs, Chatle continues. “But school starts, and now the parents are rejoicing in a completely different way: “Johnny gets along so well with the rest of the guys. Johnny shared toys and made a new friend."

Lacovara knows that most children who develop an interest in dinosaurs at an early age will not be paleontologists, but that many will fondly remember this "period" in their lives as adults. However, in a 2016 TED Talk and the 2017 follow-up book Why Dinosaurs Matter, he convinced everyone that dinosaurs are definitely important, and not just for those who digs them up.

“Want to think of a way to move heavy loads over rough terrain? Dinosaurs knew how to do it,” writes Lacovara. — Do you need an energy-efficient yet efficient cooling system? Sauropods were experts at this. Interested in recycling technology? Look at dinosaurs. Their feathers are a great example of exaptation, of using things for something they weren't originally designed to do. Since the time of da Vinci, and perhaps long before that, man has been fascinated by the idea of ​​flying without any mechanical means. We have not been able to achieve this goal. But the dinosaurs 150 million years ago did.”

Every year scientists learn more and more about dinosaurs. However, says Lacovara, they do not use all the information that can be obtained from this treasury: “People, and even paleontologists, are no longer interested in the past, but in the future, but we do not have access to it.


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