Peppa Pig Is a Total Brat. Here's Why I'm Fine with My 4-Year-Old Girl Watching Anyway

When my daughter graduated from Ms. Rachel to Peppa Pig, the overall vibes in my home shifted from cloying repetitive singalongs (that no doubt young kids soak up and love) to tea time at Harrod’s. We became, dare I say, more sophisticated. My 4-year-old used adjectives like “quite” and nouns like “cinema.” The potty was gone; replaced with “the loo.” So, I was surprised to learn that so many parents have placed Peppa Pig on the no-watch list because the titular character is—gasp!—rude.

One Houston mom told The Independent she refuses to let her kids watch because Peppa is bossy, rude and models unkind behavior. Another mother banned the show altogether after her toddler parroted Peppa’s go-to insult—“you’re not my best friend”—at daycare. Parenting experts have even chimed in: Emma Kenny listed Peppa among the shows that should be switched off for encouraging “rude family dynamics.” And over on Reddit, parents vent about how Peppa fat-shames Daddy Pig and teaches kids to hang up on their friends mid-call. “Peppa is an entitled little shit,” says one commenter.

Growing up in the ‘90s, we had our own cartoon witch hunt; my mom banned us from watching Beavis and Butthead because the news said it was making kids do bad things—like burn their own houses down. I was more of a Simpsons fan anyways. And even though Bart Simpson was a “bad boy” who couldn’t stay out of trouble if he tried, despite hours up hours of time with The Simpsons, I never told a teacher to “eat my shorts” or pranked an entire town by placing a radio in a well and claiming to be a trapped little boy. Oh, and I don’t remember anyone saying we shouldn’t watch the show because it modeled “rude family dynamics.”

And for anyone who’s actually familiar with the Peppa canon, you know that Daddy Pig is the Homer Simpson: a bumbling, donut-guzzling oaf. The posh accent might throw off the scent, but Daddy Pig is written in that same tradition—kindhearted but clueless, forever mocked for his weight or lack of skills. But somehow, it’s his confident, imperfect daughter who draws the ire of parents everywhere. A hapless dad is comedy. A sharp-tongued girl is a menace.

But honestly? Peppa’s not even that sharp-mouthed. Her so-called “brattiness” amounts to speaking her mind, hanging up on a friend once, and engaging in preschool drama. If you think that’s irredeemably bad behavior, I have concerning news: Kids test boundaries. They try on phrases. They say mean things. 

This is what makes the pearl-clutching about Peppa so revealing. If Homer Simpson or Daddy Pig can be endlessly excused because “that’s just how dads are,” but a 4-year-old piglet experimenting with boundaries is branded an “entitled little shit,” maybe the problem is our discomfort with girls being anything other than sweet, pliant and agreeable.

I’d much rather raise a menace. If my daughter is going to model herself after a cartoon, I’ll take a cheeky, loud, pink pig over a cow-towing “perfect” nothing (looking at you, Angelina Ballerina). She can be rude, opinionated, dramatic—it puts her in a lineage of great loud women. In fact, Amy Poehler recently paid homage to this type of woman on Las Culturistas: “For me, growing up, there was one woman who I just related to. She just felt very strong. She had a really specific POV. She kinda asked for what she wanted. She always had really good jokes. And that woman was…Miss Piggy.”

If my daughter comes out of childhood with a British accent and a little sass, I’ll take it. Maybe she’ll learn a karate chop from Miss Piggy while she’s at it.