Fire Watch: Sesame Street’s Push to Help Military Families Rattled by the Pandemic

In 2019, when Gen. Milley marched his boots on Sesame Street, it was in April, the Month of the Military Child. What Gen. Milley, Elmo and the rest of the world did not know at the time was that in less than a year, the world would change.

The experts and researcher behind the family-friendly fun on Sesame Street realized that kids were particularly affected by some of the consequences of the virus: two years of online schooling, oscillating class schedules, a scary illness that may have hurt them or their family, frightening images flashing across TV screens of people in hospitals beds…and of course isolation from playmates, friends and family.

And within that group, a distinct and important pocket of Americans exists: military families, who already face an ever-changing homelife with regular – and often disruptive – moves, deployments with time away from mom or dad, new schools, new friends.

The effects of the pandemic compounded those stressors that exist in military family life, especially for kids. And the Muppets of Sesame Street - who have brought joy and hope and education to children for decades - are here…and looking to help.

Main Topics

• Drew F. Lawrence interviews Rocío Galarza, Vice President of US Social Impact at Sesame Workshop about the muppets’ new resources to help military families through the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Co-host Rebecca Kheel and Navy reporter Konstantin Toropin peel back military stories that hit headlines in the last two weeks.

   

Additional Resources

• Sesame Street for Military Families
• Sesame Street in Communities
• Keep it Simple
• Daily Movement
• What Went Well
• Being Still and Quiet
• Meal Planning

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Transcript:

SPEAKERS

Muppets, NBC News Now, What Went Well, Keep It Simple, Elmo, Gen. Mark Milley, Drew Lawrence, Good Morning America, Rocío Galarza, CNN, Konstantin Toropin, Abby, Rebecca Kheel

Elmo

Elmo likes the word "resilient"

Abby

Yeah, me too.

Gen. Mark Milley

You like the word resilient? Both of you like the word resilient. Well, it's a great word. And it also means Elmo, that you're very, very brave. And Abby, that you're very, very strong.

Drew Lawrence

No , your ears do not deceive you. That was General Mark Milley, the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff talking to Elmo, the loveable red Muppet monster and his friend Abby Cadabby who have been on screen and on Sesame Street for years. You may be asking what could Gen. Milley – now the nation’s top military officer and Elmo be talking about?

Gen. Mark Milley

...of all our military kids because no matter how high the mountain, no matter how wide the river, all of our military kids are resilient enough to climb the mountain or cross the river...resilient.

Muppets

Thank you for being so resilient!

Drew Lawrence

That’s right, in 2019 when Gen. Milley marched his boots on Sesame Street, it was in April, the Month of the Military Child. But what General Milley, Elmo and the rest of the world did not know at the time, was that in less than a year, the world would change. And that resilience would be needed more than ever.

NBC News Now

...Quarantine, state of emergency, shelter in place...the story of the Coronavirus changes by the hour...

Good Morning America

...we're also tracking alarming numbers in the pandemic tonight the number of hospitalizations in this country now setting an all time record just…

CNN

…released review of the pandemics mental health toll on children and teenagers find school closures drove increased stress and increased anxiety, the researchers combed through 36 studies spanning 11 countries, finding...

Drew Lawrence

The COVID-19 pandemic altered so much about the world, with some of the effects still revealing themselves. But what the experts and researcher behind the family-friendly fun on Sesame Street realized was that kids were particularly affected by the consequences of the virus: two years of online schooling, oscillating class schedules, a scary illness that may have hurt them or their family, frightening images flashing across TV screens of people in hospitals beds…and of course isolation from playmates, friends and family. And within that group, a distinct and important pocket of Americans exists: military families, who already face an ever-changing homelife with regular – and often disruptive moves – deployments with time away from mom or dad, new schools, new friends. The effects of the pandemic compounded those stressors that exist in military family life, especially for kids. And the Muppets of Sesame Street - who have brought joy and hope and education to children for decades - are hare…and looking to help. On Thursday, Sesame Street for Military Families announced new resources for kids, ones that are focused on wellness in the wake of the pandemic. Joining me to talk about those resources is Rocio Galarza, Vice President of US Social Impact at the Sesame Workshop. Take a listen. For Military.com, my name is Drew Lawrence – it is January 27th and this is Fire Watch.

Rocío Galarza

Well, many of us knows no Sesame Workshop for our system history show. But many also know us. So because of our Sesame Street for military families information that we and website that we created for for a long time since 2006. And so we've been building this this set of resources really trying to tackle as families are going through difficult issues or, or new challenges in military life, we've tackled them with them, providing resources that could be helpful to talk about these issues with with young children. And now for this year. We are looking at more resources around self care and emotional well being overall for for military families.

Drew Lawrence

And broadly, not just for military families. But for families in general, the last few years were very difficult. Can you kind of tell us a little bit about what some families went through over the last three years and what your research had found?

Rocío Galarza

Well, there was a lot of disruption related to the pandemic in the last few years, there were challenges with children and for caregivers. If you think about the life of a very small child, of course, social interaction is one of those things that are most important in their learning. They're trying to understand the world around them and they learn from those interactions that they have with the adults in their lives with other children. And all of that was disrupted during the pandemic and of course there were a lot of stressors that impacted their lives, in their emotional well being, as you can imagine, not being able to connect into and to develop as they usually do. Also, there were stressors on the parents, there were a lot of changes that were happening, the parents needed to pivot again, again and again and again. And and it does trickle down to the entire family. Parents and caregivers are at the center, what happens to them and, and how they care for themselves does affect their children as well. So we are acknowledging that both the children need some support, some extra support, as we all do, but also that parents and caregivers should give themselves some time, and some some extra care as well, because of all these difficulties that they've just gone through.

Drew Lawrence

Can you tell me what Sesame Street for Military Families is and what this week’s big announcement entails? And I want to talk a little bit about military families, right, because outside of the pandemic, military families experience uncertainty in kind of the regular job requirements for parents and caregivers. And that uncertainty can lead to some distress for kids. Can you talk a little bit about what those stressors may be just for a baseline for military families?

Rocío Galarza

Well, throughout the years, we've of course seen that, that different stressors are become more important at different times. We started with a lot of deployments, the homecomings, continuing with a lot of relocations, and even small, what you would think are celebratory events like a birthday can become quite difficult if a parent is away. Now, what you will see is that the the demands of military life like relocations, like temporary duty assignments, deployments continue. But during the time of the pandemic, military families were helping us all of us with all of the issues that were happening also with the pandemic, so, and needing support and explaining to children about COVID. And explaining to children why some of these, you know, the, the temporary duty assignments were sometimes longer because of a break or some exposure. And so all of that adds up when it comes to military families. And even though we throughout the years, we say this again, and again, they're strong, they're resilient, we also have to acknowledge that even when you're strong and resilient, you sometimes need some more support.

Drew Lawrence

You have these two factors, right, the things that military families go through on regular basis, but also the compounding effects of the pandemic. Can you describe, you know, what's the the outcome of that? What does that look like for a military family to deal with those two factors simultaneously?

Rocío Galarza

Well, there's a lot of changes, there's a lot of explanation to young children of what's going on, and added stress in the family. How do we manage all of these different changes that are compounding? What's interesting about military families is that they're also very resourceful. So what you will see is the added stress and the impacts but also the finding of resources within the community to support one another. And, and that's what we see very much in when we do focus groups that are trying to connect with one another. And that's why the military families website is a resource, but also our Facebook page is a resource for them, because they are trying to find those connections and understanding that it is through that set of connections and being resourceful that they can get through some of these additional stressors.

Drew Lawrence

And I want to talk about some of those resources. Because, you know, Sesame Street in general has been a source of comfort in education and connection for families in general since the 80s. Right. But for military families recently with this announcement on Thursday, you have launched some new resources that kind of help with wellness for military families in the context of the pandemic. Can you explain a little bit what those resources are?

Rocío Galarza

This new content that was created with MSN web services, does tackle the idea of providing strategies around self care and celebrating everyday victories. And what does that mean? Because we know that we've heard self care many, many times...sometimes we're a little skeptical and how something very simple can help us throughout some of these stressors. So what we've done here is to model some of those simple strategies to give them a voice through our characters and to encourage both the kids but also the parents to look at what how do they incorporate these simple strategies in their everyday so that they can see how the trickle effects to this simple, simple one, one action that I can take with my family.

Drew Lawrence

And in one of these videos that you had produced is called Keep It Simple, and I really liked that because I think a lot of parents will look at that and relate to the situation right? Elmo is you know being kid. He's being loud. He's playing the drums and you have Elmo's mom who comes in and she's very busy. She's doing all these things.

Keep It Simple

...I don't know Elmo. You know, it's time for me to start making dinner and I got I got garlic to peel and and tomatoes to slice and, and onions and peppers to chop. Mommy can play drums. Drums. Hmm. Well, that does sound like fun

Drew Lawrence

And the concept, at its face value as the video suggests is to keep it simple. And there's some flexibility that's built in there. Can you kind of talk about what that situation was and what Elmo's mom did to kind of keep it simple into into build some flexibility and predictability for Elmo.

Rocío Galarza

So what we saw during the pandemic is that because of all of these different things that parents were, were a new role that parents were taking with their children, they really wanted to, to support their children in so many different ways. But that, of course, brings about a lot of pressure to do everything, right all the time, or everything in a very particular way their routine needs to be followed, right. And so what Mae does here is to say, look, sometimes we need to give ourselves a break and change, change the routine, and find the simple ways of resolving dinner, in this particular case, right? Elmo wanted her to play. And she wanted to make dinner as their routine follow. So in this, in this case, she was like, You know what, I'm going to take a break myself, I'm going to play with you, I'm going to make it fun. But also, I'm going to then order a pizza because I cannot be both things or I cannot be cooking and playing with you at the same time. And I also need that break from the stressors of everything being in a specific way.

Drew Lawrence

And I also like how almost mom really didn't mince words at the end, right? She directly addressed military families, and how difficult it could actually be

Keep It Simple

When routines change, like they often do for military families like mine, doing things simpler can be a good way to take care of ourselves and our families. That way, we are always ready to rock. You ready Elmo?...

Rocío Galarza

Yes, you know, making that decision of having that flexibility in itself can be difficult just because we're going, we're always going. And because when we're in a moment of stress, being able to think differently is sometimes something that takes some effort. So it is the reality is that there is a little bit of inertia from us as adults into getting to, to think differently and to and to pivot. But also, that's why these these segments are so important, because if they remind us of 'Oh, that is an option, I can do this.' And maybe I cannot do this every obviously every day because there are routines that I want to keep. But why why not try it once a month, right and give myself a break, be able to play with with my children a little bit more, which in itself brings not only joy in the moment, but it is it is a way of connecting with your children that is so valuable for them. And for you as a caretaker.

Drew Lawrence

I also really enjoyed how these videos you know, they're made with our friends at Sesame Street. And they're they look at face value, like they're specifically for kids. But there's also so many helpful tips for for parents in this. And it was great to see Ricardo who identified himself as a veteran and also talked about mental health in prioritizing it.

What Went Well

Hello there. My name is Ricardo. I'm Rosita's dad and a proud military veteran. I'm honored to have served my country. Sometimes I have really hard days. And that's when I think about my Went Wells. Three simple things, no matter how large or how small that have gone well that day. Things like how the coffee was really good this morning. My therapy session and how it was challenging but in a good way and how I got things all set up for my family game night...

Rocío Galarza

Ricardo's and Rosita's family in general have a really interesting arch within our materials because they are caregiving family as a veteran family that does practice self care many times because mental health is front and center in their lives because of the invisible and visible injuries that Ricardo has. So, they are a great example not only for for those that are going to family caregiving experiences, but for all of us right if the if if a family that is going through so many different experiences can take time for self care, we all can, right? That is that is the message that Ricardo always kind of shows us with his with his modeling. And in this particular case, he is reflecting of what on what went well, because sometimes what Ricardo expresses in the video is that sometimes these can be very difficult. In and waking up in the morning, you don't you know, you, you just kind of don't want to, to wake up and get out of the room and do the things that you want to do. But there are things that can help us remember that even in the most difficult days, there are things that went well, little things that went well. And Ricardo does reflect on those three simple things for him in that day. And, again, it is a tip for parents, but it is something that can be practiced as a family...what went well. So how can families access these resources? Well, we have two ways of accessing them is through our sesamestreetincommunities.org or sesamestreetformilitaryfamilies.org websites. These websites are free, they're English and Spanish. So all of our Spanish speakers can see all of the videos in Spanish in all of the resources. In fact, they are 16 years worth of resources there that include parent articles, games, printable activities, videos, all of them with Sesame Street Muppets, sometimes with military families telling their own stories. So we encourage everyone to visit the website, we continue to add resources. And so it is a wide range of challenges, like we've talked about deployments, homecomings, all sorts of just military life, right moments of military life, as well as how do I establish a routine? How do I express myself? So it's also those those everyday moments that that we want to build within our military families that can make them strong and resilient.

Drew Lawrence

Rocio, there are a lot of kids who are struggling with long term effects of the virus, not only with just the disease itself, but many of the isolating factors that have come from it, what would Sesame Street overall tell those kids or the parents who are listening right now to do to help with those or to give them hope?

Rocío Galarza

Well, the stressors are real, right. And children do feel stress. And what it means for most children is that they they need some extra support from from their caregivers and from their parents to nurture those connections that they have. Having said that, even though we have to validate the fact that children do feel stress, what we're also seeing is that once you put children in setups in settings, where they can interact with one another, where they are these nurturing and comforting connections between them and adults in their lives, children do bounce back. And they continue to develop those those social skills. So the the important thing is that, yes, their stress is there. But the solution to it is actually something that we've known all along. And that is very much on our control in our hands, which is those nurturing connections for them to know that they have that caring adult with them. Let's talk more let's sit down and play more let's do like may did, and, and take a break so that we can make space for those moments that are the ones that are going to help children bounce back.

Drew Lawrence

And Rocio I'd be remiss if I didn't say that 24 years ago today, I met Elmo, he came to my birthday party. And I know he's not with us today, but I was wondering if you could just pass along the message that I remember that, I appreciate it. He made me feel better about having red hair when I was a little kid.

Rocío Galarza

Oh, I know Elmo will love to hear that.

Drew Lawrence

Okay, good.

Rocío Galarza

I know that he would.

Drew Lawrence

Rocio thank you so much for joining us on Fire Watch I sincerely appreciate it.

Rocío Galarza

Thank you so much for having us again and everyone please visit our website sesamestreetincommunities.org or sesamestreetformilitaryfamilies.org to find these free resources

Drew Lawrence

Stick around because up next is our reporter roundtable, with my co-host Rebecca Kheel and Navy reporter Konstantin Toropin to help us catch up on military stories over the last two weeks. Heads up to parents, if your little ones were listening to our Sesame friends, our roundtable contains some adult themes.

Rebecca Kheel

Hi everyone my name is Rebecca Kheel, co-host of Fire Watch and congressional reporter for Military.com. Welcome to our reporter roundtable. Here’s what you may have missed since our last episode: In a Cold War sea search that would fit into the Hunt for Red October, the Coast Guard has been monitoring a Russian vessel off the coast of Hawaii that officials believe may be an intelligence gathering ship working for the Kremlin. The sighting, of course comes as tension between the West and Russia are at the highest since the Cold War as the country continues its war in Ukraine. A pair of shootings sent shockwaves throughout Fort Bragg, North Carolina last week, leaving one non-commissioned officer dead. The shootings are still being investigated, but they involved soldiers from the Army’s Special Operations Command, a unit that has seen its fair share of tumult in the last few weeks as a separate investigation unfolds into an alleged drug trafficking ring within the service’s 3rd Special Forces Group. And the military is looking into whether a nuclear Missile base in Montana could be the source of blood cancer in nine military personnel that worked there decades ago. At least one of the former service members has died and officials called the diagnoses disproportionate and concerning. As always, joining me is my co-host Drew Lawrence. And with us today is our own Konstantin Toropin, who covers the Navy for Military.com. Welcome, thanks for being here.

Konstantin Toropin

Thanks, Rebecca. Thanks for having me.

Drew Lawrence

Yeah. Thank you, Rebecca. I appreciate it. And Konstantin again, thanks so much for being here. We want to talk to you about this story that you wrote about three active duty Marines who were arrested for their alleged involvement in the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. And the story that you had, it really blew up. But just briefly, can you tell us who these Marines are and what they allegedly did at the Capitol?

Konstantin Toropin

Yeah, absolutely Drew. So the three Marines come from across the country. One is stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland, one stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, and one is stationed at Camp Pendleton in California. And the three men according to court records, were alleged to have entered the Capitol during the riot on January 6. They walked around the building, they took pictures, they put a red MAGA hat onto a statue in the Capitol building. And eventually they left and investigators initially found a social media account for one of the three Marines and served a search warrant on August 2021. So using the posts that the one Marine made, as well as video from inside the Capitol, they eventually identified the three.

Drew Lawrence

You had done a really great job of pulling some really interesting information from what the prosecutors had entered into court records. One of the things that stuck out to me was some of the language that one of the Marines used. Micah Coomer, who allegedly said that "everything in this country is corrupt." "We honestly need a fresh start and waiting for the Boogaloo." When another person asked what the Boogaloo is, what that means, he said, Civil War Two. And this is kind of interesting, because it's language that we often see in generally anti government groups. But it's interesting here, because these are active duty Marines who are allegedly saying these things, right.

Konstantin Toropin

Yeah, absolutely. And that's kind of gets at the heart of I think what makes the story interesting is you've got three men who are not previously serving, not having having served, not having since been discharged, and the law finally catches up to them. These all three of these men are on active duty. And, you know, as of as of last week, are still on active duty. And yeah, one of them, according to the court records, is discussing this civil war, which, for those sort of not read into the various extremist groups in America, you know, the Boogaloo boys, or the Boogaloo movement is this far right anti-government organization that is very in favor of using violence, and believes that there is a future race war, future civil war on the horizon, that they are getting ready for. So to find that rhetoric within court records coming from an active duty service member is obviously troubling.

Rebecca Kheel

And one of the things about this case that garnered a lot of public attention was the fact that all three of these Marines worked in intelligence. Does that matter at all? Does that make this case any more concerning than if any other three Marines had been arrested?

Konstantin Toropin

Yeah, Rebecca, I think that's a that's a fair point. There's definitely some cause for concern here because what you're talking about is three Marines that held jobs that at their minimum required them to exercise good judgment required. You know, discretion, sort of all of these things that we would expect from somebody working with, you know, signals intelligence, or supporting signals intelligence, one of the Marines was assigned to a marine Special Operations Unit that supports marine Special Operations Command. So definitely individuals that were given sort of greater national trust than an average service member.

Drew Lawrence

Now, that's a good point, Konstantin but I think it's also worth mentioning that, you know, intelligence, both in the military and in that community is kind of a broad term, right, but especially for the public. But it's worth mentioning, you know, these three Marines that it was they're not super secret agents are working for the CIA or anything like that, right?

Konstantin Toropin

Yeah, you're absolutely right Drew, the intelligence community, like many communities within the military, and for that matter, professionals within this country have rank and file members, as well as elite members. And neither the court records northern Marine Corps have offered much in the way of detail as to what these guys were doing or what their assignments were.

Rebecca Kheel

Now zooming out a bit, we've talked before on this podcast about the issue of extremism among veterans and service members, often in the context of January 6, and how you know, it is a minority of those populations. But that doesn't make the issue any less concerning. How would you say this case fits into that broader context? And do you think it's indicative at all of a larger issue?

Konstantin Toropin

Yeah, you're absolutely right, Rebecca. I mean, if we look at the, you know, the overall military population, and I think what representatives for these branches would point out is they would say, you know, what, we have hundreds of 1000s of service members, and almost all of them are not involved in any sort of extremism. So you've got these very visible, this very visible, tiny minority, that's simply being noticed. But that being said, these three men do fall into this trend of service members that espouse very extreme beliefs. You know, according to the court records. Prosecutors allege that one of these guys belong to a fairly violent movement that believes the second civil war is coming. We also have the fact that experts have repeatedly told us that military members within these organizations who join these organizations tend to have an outsized impact based on just the credibility that military service brings, as well as some of the just basic leadership skills that oftentimes folks possess coming out of the military. So while definitely a small population, it's something that is worth paying attention to.

Rebecca Kheel

Well, great conversation. Thank you both again for being here. And thanks to our listeners for tuning in. Be sure to tune in next time.

Drew Lawrence

Thank you so much for listening to this special episode of Fire Watch. Thank you to our friends over at Sesame Workshop for helping us explain the importance of these resources for military families. Thanks also to my co-host, Rebecca Kheel and Navy Reporter Konstantin Toropin. Credit to executive producers Zachary Fryer-Biggs and Amy Bushatz. If you liked this episode and want to let us know, give us a rating – wherever you get your podcasts. And as always, thanks for listening.