Steve Irwin was awesome, and probably the greatest conservationists of recent times. Whatever you thought of his TV shows, his accomplishments and ventures outside the world of entertainment are pretty spectacular.

But I liked his TV shows, and my 4-year old daughter LOVES them. She's learned a lot from them, and so have I. We just watched one together yesterday. I can attribute, at least partially, her fascination and love of snakes, spiders, bugs and all kinds of creepy shit to Steve Irwin, and I think that's pretty god damn cool.

So....do you tell a 4-year old that the Crocodile Hunter is dead, stung in the heart by a stingray? I'm thinking "no".

Wheely wrote:So....do you tell a 4-year old that the Crocodile Hunter is dead, stung in the heart by a stingray? I'm thinking "no".

I think she'd be fine with it as long as you buy her a stingray.

I'm thinking you won't have to explain his disappearance at all. He was dead to television, anyhow.

i always imagined he would die on a plane full of snakes. Anyway, i thought he was a great bloke and it's good that he died doing what he loved. I feel bad for his young family he will be missed. RIP steve

My dad got stung by a sting ray

Wheely wrote:So....do you tell a 4-year old that the Crocodile Hunter is dead, stung in the heart by a stingray? I'm thinking "no".

I was wondering about this when I wrote my earlier post about kids digging him. It occured to me that aside from the impact on his own young family, the way he connected to kids through his TV shows means there'll be a lot of people in this situation, parents of young children that loved the funny croc guy who don't know whether to let it pass, or let them know.

Perhaps in a funny way that earlier video of Steve Irwin crying over a dead crocodile ("I loved her like I love my wife") is instructive here. Did your daughter ever see that? Did she react? It might be a useful reference if you feel you need to explain it. I'm no parent though, and fate prevent any four year old be left in my charge for some years yet. Instinct suggests that four years is too young, though - she won't know a new show from a video, at that age? - but all kids are different, right?

And a positive note here. I've seen some references here and elsewhere to his wife being 'involved' with his TV show and his conservation work. As far as I've ever been aware, she's always been as involved as Steve Irwin was. She was certainly no stooge for the cameras, and I'm sure her knowledge and passion for nature and conservation are just as strong as Mr Irwin's. She may lack his natural charisma and talent for entertaining, perhaps, but I hope and feel sure that she and their kids can carry on the work he was doing off-camera, in the memory of his name.

daniel robert chapman wrote:And a positive note here. I've seen some references here and elsewhere to his wife being 'involved' with his TV show and his conservation work. As far as I've ever been aware, she's always been as involved as Steve Irwin was. She was certainly no stooge for the cameras, and I'm sure her knowledge and passion for nature and conservation are just as strong as Mr Irwin's. She may lack his natural charisma and talent for entertaining, perhaps, but I hope and feel sure that she and their kids can carry on the work he was doing off-camera, in the memory of his name.

If memory serves, and I think it does, the first show Irwin taped was of him and his wife wrangling crocodiles on their honeymoon. Before they were married she was extremely active with animal rescue and return type activities in Utah or something. (I'm not an Irwin buff or anything, I just read an article in the past year about all of his conservation activities.)

I'm gonna miss that dude. My daughter and I do impersonations of him. Mine starts off OK, but always ends up sounding like my fake Spanish accent, which sounds exactly like my fake Italian accent. My half-Sicilian wife thinks this is hilarious.

Does someone have a picture of a stingray because I don't know the French translation please?

Killer of Irwin:

Wheely wrote:Killer of Irwin:

Thank you.
I didn't know those were dangerous.
It's sad for his family.