New 'Sesame Street' character shares importance of fostering
"Sesame Street" announced last week a new character named Karli, a foster muppet who explains to Elmo the importance of receiving love from others when not able to be cared for by their birth parents.
The PBS show character lives with her “for now” parents, Dalia and Clem, and during an activity with Elmo she attempted to explain to him what it’s like having a foster family.
“My very first heart is me and my mom together but my mom can't be with me right now even though she loves me very much," Karli told Elmo.
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“But then I came here to stay with my foster parents and they gave me a big hug and that made my heart feel a little bigger.”
The muppet then shared some advice she learned from her “now” family.
“Dalia told me that even when our hearts feel sad and small they could still grow. The more in love they get the more they grow,” she added.
YouTube videos promoting Karli’s character also showed Elmo’s dad, Louie, talking with Karli's foster parents.
"How's everything been since becoming her foster parents?" Louie asks in the video.
"Well, changes like this can be really rough for kids and for adults too," Clem replies.
"It's had its ups and downs but no matter what, we try to let Karli know we are always here for her," Dalia says.
Other videos include one titled "You Belong," where Karli talks about how she worries about not having a “place at the table” during a pizza party in her new foster home.
The Sesame Community launched the new muppet to "support" foster children, foster parents, and providers who serve foster families.
"Fostering a child takes patience, resilience, and sacrifice, and we know that caring adults hold the power to buffer the effects of traumatic experiences on young children,” Dr. Jeanette Betancourt, senior vice president of U.S. Social Impact at Sesame Workshop said in a statement shared with The Christian Post. “We want foster parents and providers to hear that what they do matters — they have the enormous job of building and rebuilding family structures and children’s sense of safety.”
Although the “Sesame Street” segment is about foster care, the Washington Examiner pegged Karli’s message “pro-life.”
“Her situation could be the start of an argument against abortion, one that says children’s lives are still worth saving even if a birth mother isn't equipped to take care of them herself,” the outlet said of the new muppet and her message.
Pro-abortion activists have used the expression “unwanted” children when talking about abortion. Alabama state Rep. John Rogers recently argued that “some kids are unwanted, so you kill them now, or you kill them later.”
He said that if “you bring them in the world unwanted, unloved,” those kids will eventually end up with unfortunate outcomes.
