OUT of the blue, my four- year-old son, Julian, makes a solemn declaration.
“Mummy, I just don’t like Thomas & Friends and Chuggington any more,” he pipes up one day, referring to his two favourite train-themed cartoons. “I also like Glee.”

Uh, wait a minute – did my son just zip from age four to 14? What happened to childhood television viewing like Ultraman and Batman?

While other boys his age have transitioned to Shrek, Ben10 and Disney’s High School Musical, Julian has skipped all those tween offerings and gone straight for the hit American prime-time musical series – about a bunch of misfit teenagers in a show-choir – that his Dad and I watch (think The Breakfast Club with Broadway tunes).

Glee-mania has taken hold of our household. While critics are having a field day discussing the recent Season One finale in the United States, Julian watches old episodes obsessively.

Each morning, he wakes up to sing along, hand over heart, to the Glee cast’s version of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ (mangling the lyrics in his own earnest way) on his CD player.

He even uses two rock- never-dies fingers to push up and primp his imaginary mohawk, imitating Glee’s bad boy, Puck (played by Mark Salling).

At first, I was worried that some issues portrayed in the show might be too advanced for him.

After all, I am here to put the P in PG. When we watched the Madonna episode together, I watched him carefully for signs of confusion as the high-school kids discuss losing “it” and snog simultaneously while singing Like A Virgin.

When one of the supporting characters, Kurt (Chris Colfer), struggled with his sexuality, I braced myself for questions from my son.

But, so far, the references to sexuality (not to mention teenage pregnancy and infidelity) have largely gone over Julian’s head, as he waits patiently for the “filler talking bits” to be over so that he can start grooving to the songs.

After all, the songs are the real draw of this feel-good series, which has won fans both young and old.

From cheesy MTV classics, like Total Eclipse Of The Heart, that draw the 30- to 40-somethings, to more recent fare like Rihanna’s Take A Bow and Beyonce’s Halo, the Glee kids’ repertoire artfully captures the short attention spans of today’s children.

However, what I like best about letting my four-year-old watch Glee is that it is exposing him to some stereotype-busting images before social prejudices set in his young mind.

At Glee’s fictional William McKinley High School in Ohio, there is a principal played by Pakistani-American actor Iqbal Theba. And the ones with the smoothest moves in the Glee club are the Asian students, ala Korean pop star Rain.

Julian finds Artie (Kevin McHale), the guitar-wield-ing Glee kid who sits in a wheelchair, cool.

And two recurring characters with intellectual disabilities are portrayed by actresses who have Down’s Syndrome.

Our shared enthusiasm for a show about singing and dancing has made it easier for me to teach my son two values. One is that it’s okay to express yourself.

The other is that, rather than seeing and describing people only in terms of their physical differences, it’s so much better to love them for their talents.

And both are lessons that can be learnt at the age of four, 14 or 40.

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