Without choosing sides, I think it's pretty clear that Caillou's creators are presenting an approach to parenting that involves encouraging kids to emote. Which is often not a lot of fun to be around, of course, but the opposite approach could amount to telling kids to shut up because you don't want to know how they feel. My suspicion is that kids will self-limit eventually, as part of developmental growth, and that worrying too much about either extreme is probably pointless. My gripe is that Caillou's pacing is so vague and dreamy that essentially almost nothing happens in an entire episode.

Interesting. I didn't know that "encouraging kids to emote" is a thing, but I guess it could be.

I never knew kids had trouble emoting. Emoting is all that the ones I know do.

Caillou is pretty much the worst children's show I have ever seen, the hate is not undeserved. He constantly whines and has tantrums and his parents always give in, just teaches children to be insufferable to get your way.

Interesting, we have also noticed that our daughter is now saying the resigned "Well Ok" with a sigh (or whatever the English translation is) as the eponymous character. I had not noticed the link to the tantrums though...

We forbid our children from watching Caillou. We explain to them that the way he behaves is not acceptable or allowed in our home. We don't want them to think Caillou's behavior is okay. They self-police now.