polarbear, I get what you're saying, but if your family tends to be pretty removed from pop culture (we are) it's possible to forget to tune in to occasional detriment. I don't think it's a huge deal, but it's like a conversational icebreaker. Oh, you like Angry Birds? You like Elsa? Me too. How about those Red Sox?
ultramarina, my kids started school having never listened to current pop music and never watching tv other than the occasional Nature video on PBS. We didn't have any electronic toys in our house, the kids at that age didn't use our computers, and at that point in time I didn't even use a cell phone, and my kids had no logos on anything. I suspect that, at best, my family would have qualified as "fringe" rather than being familiar with what seems to be referred to hear as popular culture, and that's where I'm coming from. Not knowing the latest hit movie characters, not watching cartoons on tv, not listening to pop music - none of that caused an issue in meeting and making friend when my kids went to school. What made a difference was how comfortable my kids were meeting and getting to know other kids. If it helps a child to know who Elsa is in order to feel like they fit in, I don't have an issue with taking them to see Frozen, but what if the child they meet hasn't seen Frozen? There are so many things in young children's worlds that can serve as a common conversational point and a common meeting-of-minds, that kids really don't have to know what the "popular" movies/songs/etc are just to fit in. I spent a lot of time after school when my kids were in their first elementary school just hanging out on the side at the playground after school so my kids could play - lots of families did that at that school. The things kids talked about and played on the playground had nothing to do with movies etc - they were swinging on swings, sliding down slides, talking about dinosaurs, looking for cool rocks, seeing how fhow much playground "mulch" (whatever it was) they could stuff in their shoes, racing to catch nothing, things like that. In the classroom during free time they had all sorts of school stuff to play with, particularly in kindergarten where there were dolls, play kitchens, blocks, legos, games, etc. My kids absolutely *learned* about popular music/games/tv shows etc through peers that they met at school, but they weren't ever shunned or limited in friendship opportunities because of not having been exposed to it.
That said, I do know quite a bit about popular music now that tI've had kids go through elementary school and in turn it's seeped into our house as our kids have picked and chosen what they like
And that's ok - I am now a Lady Gaga and Katy Perry fan
polarbear
