What Kelli Giddish Watches (and Reads) With Her Sons

Kelli Giddish’s three sons don’t exactly know what their mom does for a living. They know she plays a cop on TV, sure, but that as Detective Amanda Rollins she spends her days investigating vicious felonies as a member of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit? Not so much. 

That’s not to say they haven’t been to the set. They have, many times. Giddish’s 11-year-old son, Ludo, even played Amanda’s daughter, Jesse Rollins, when he was first born. (That role has since been taken over by other child actors, but Giddish says Ludo “will always have that to fall back on.”) But while longtime members of SVU’s fandom might be swept away by the possibility of sitting at Benson’s desk or strutting around the station’s interrogation rooms, Giddish’s sons think the whole thing is pretty ho-hum.

“They’re not so enamored with it,” Giddish says. “They get that people recognize me sometimes and they’re fine with it because everybody in New York is so complimentary and sweet — and SVU is a lot of peoples’ favorite show so you get nothing but love — but in general, they really don’t care too much.”

Fortunately, Giddish and her sons have lots to talk about and bond over instead. Here’s what they love to read, watch, and listen to together. 

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Ella Langley

I have three boys. One just turned 11, one is about to turn 8, and then I have a 3-year-old. So it’s very, very hard to find something that we can all watch or play together that everyone is actually interested in. But it’s really important for me to find something that we can all do together because I hate seeing everyone off in their own little corners watching their iPads. 

Luckily, there’s always music to fall back on. When we put music on, everybody gets up and dances. Everybody is participating. Everybody’s got a smile on their face. 

We play anything from Eminem to Elton John to Ella Langley. I think all three of the boys know every word to at least two Ella Langley songs right now. That was a big summer record for us. 

Nothing makes me happier than seeing my 11-year-old try and spit all the words out for “The Monster,” by Eminem. It gives me such great joy, and he knows that he can say those words while he’s singing but otherwise it’s not that great. 

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The New York Knicks

For my oldest son, everything is sports. He loves the Knicks and he loves the Giants. When the Knicks are on in the regular season, bedtime just gets destroyed. During the playoffs, he was 10 years old and he got no sleep but that’s what we bond over. I love watching a Knicks game with him. 

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Grimm, Grimmer, Grimmest

My middle child, Charlie, and I really bonded over this podcast called Grimm, Grimmer, Grimmest. It’s so good. I like it so much that I wanted the creator to know that it really meant a lot to me and my family. So I reached out and we ended up going to get coffee. I said, “Listen, if I can ever do anything for the podcast, let me know,” and then I ended up doing a couple of voices for it, which was such a fun day. I’m really proud of it, and my son is really proud of it too.

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Wild Kratts and Secrets of the Bees

If my 3-year-old really, really wants to watch TV — and he knows I say no to everything — he’ll go, “Not Bluey?” And I’ll say, “no,” and he’ll go, “What about Wild Kratts?” because he knows that’s the one I like to watch too. I like that on Wild Kratts you get to learn about a certain animal. It’s always something you didn’t know.

The other day, my husband put on Secrets of the Bees on Disney. Me, my husband, and my 3- and 7-year-olds … we were watching it like it was a WWE fight. I mean, the yelling and the, “Oh my gosh, did you see that? Go, bee, go!” Like the bee is fighting his enemies. We learned crazy things that the bees do, too. It was amazing, and we were laughing so hard because it was like, “I can’t believe all of us were so into it.”

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Junior Bake Off

We used to watch the Great British Baking Show’s kids version, Junior Bake Off. They’d always get a soft spot for the younger kid that can’t really cook, like, “Oh, man, poor Benji,” or whatever. It’s so sweet to see them root for him, even though you know the outcome is not going to be good for that kid.

I need Netflix to put all the seasons of Junior Bake Off on their service, though. We need to know that they’re all there.

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Regenwormen and Uno

There’s a game we call “Worms” that’s a really big one in our house. Our Dutch neighbor introduced it to us, but it’s great because you have to add all the dice, and it’s such a fun game. My husband and I even play when we don’t have a kid around. 

We also play Uno, like whatever iteration is out. Some of them are so bad though, because it makes the game last for hours. Monopoly Go has also been a huge game in our house.

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Crash Bandicoot

Have you ever heard of this game? My middle son loves to play, and we all end up playing it together when he can’t get past a certain level. We each take turns and we try to get through the level, which is fun. 

We also used to play The Game of Life on the Xbox as a family but it got too stressful after a while because people were getting too upset that they didn’t get the dog that they wanted. So we had to stop playing that.

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Mac Barnett and Judy Blume

There’s this author, Mac Barnett, and I love anything that he writes. My favorite one at the moment is called The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse. It’s such a good book, and all of us love it. All of us think it’s hilarious.

I’m also reading Super Fudge to my 8-year-old, but I had no idea that there was discussion of there being no Santa Claus in that one. I know he suspected, but he was like, “Well, I just got confirmation, Mom.”

He loves to read The Bad Guys series, too, so I’ll read that with him sometimes.

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Caps for Sale

The one I’ve probably read to my little guy the most is Caps for Sale, and it’s actually my copy from when I was a little kid. My mom recently gave it to me, and he loves that book. You know where the monkeys steal the guy’s hats and he has to shout at them and stamp his feet? He loves to act that out.

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The LEGO Minifigure Encyclopedia

You know what my favorite encyclopedia has been for the boys? The LEGO minifigure book. It’s so good because it’s huge and it includes every minifigure that’s ever been made. 

We used to have a game where you had to put together a team, so you’d have to read about different ones and pick out who you wanted to draft. I was the judge, usually, between my husband and my oldest son, and you got points for heart, for style, and for courage. So you’d have to pick the banana guy or you’d pick the astronaut, because he’s smart and he’s courageous. It was a good way to learn about different careers and people.