Goodnight, Papa Bear

Stan Berenstain of "Berenstain Bears" fame dies at 82; parents everywhere get a little less help embracing their own fallibility

Stan Berenstain, creator of the Berenstain Bears books, died Saturday of complications from cancer. A wildly popular series of thin children's paperbacks, the stories chronicled the misadventures of four bipedal bears named, in childlike fashion, Papa, Mama, Brother, and Sister. There must be hundreds of these books, each revolving around some minor domestic trauma: "The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room"; "The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food"; "The Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners," etc.

Most have a predictable thread: The bear siblings step on Mama's or Papa's last nerve and someone in the treehouse blows up. The angry parent starts to tongue-lash the hapless cubs, but then, at the pivotal moment in each book, realizes that he or she isn't being very grown up about the situation. Bearfit thus defused, a constructive outcome is possible and harmony pervades the treehouse.

More often than not, the dunderhead is Papa Bear, who consistently displays a need to do things better, faster, and bigger, and who gets handed his furry ass every time, only to find himself more beloved by the cubs. According to the obituary in today's Los Angeles Times, Stan Berenstain and his wife and co-author Jan modeled the adult bears on themselves.

"I was told by a lawyer once that truth is a complete defense. Mama's perfectionism is about Jan," Stan told The Times.

He deflected criticism of Papa Bear, who is frequently portrayed as a bit of a dolt, by admitting that the bear's bullheaded tendencies were all his.

I do understand the position of one dad I know who finds the Berenstain Bears series too sexist for his family's library (with the lone exception of "Messy Room," Mama never gets handed her comeuppance), but I still maintain that the series displays a subversive genius. Young children like to hear stories a jillion times; stories that show their parents as flawed or capable of hypocrisy, two jillion times. But even better, show me the grownup who can make it through "The Berenstain Bears and the Greedy Gimmies" without acknowledging on their own tendency to feed the trolls and I'll show you someone pathologically devoid of self-awareness.

I'm a better human for having known you, Stan. Godspeed in the ultimate hibernation.