Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Andrew Sanford | News | March 26, 2025
I am one of many parents whose children burst into the world as Ms. Rachel burst onto YouTube. I’m unsure if my wife had found her while scrolling or was told about her by a friend. One day, this woman in overalls and a pink shirt was entertaining my boys by continuously dropping a small pumpkin from her head while picking it back up and singing all along (it’s a good bit). Her show is warm and informative and my kids love her. I was foolish enough to push Ninja Turtles and superheroes on them around the same time, but Rachel has still held strong in their hearts. They turn four today and she can still get a laugh out of them.
My children are no longer babies, but do you know who I would call a baby? Robert De Niro’s 23-month-old daughter. If you’re still counting in months, that’s a baby! A baby whose father is an 81-year-old man. That is still difficult for me to process. I’m not here to judge but to observe. And what I observe is that Bobby hasn’t been helping with many of the late-night feedings. That’s Dad’s job too! Despite his advanced age, De Niro has learned what many a third his age have: Ms. Rachel can calm your kid down.
De Niro explained that on The Drew Barrymore Show when she pressed him on his child’s love of Ms. Rachel in a way that felt kind of like a threat(?). According to the Dirty Grandpa actor, his daughter can be put in front of the ponytail-wearing children’s entertainment star whenever there is a “problem.” While Drew hadn’t been threatening him when asking, she was teeing up a surprise. Drew’s crew had gotten a message from Ms. Rachel, based on one of De Niro’s most notorious roles.
He does seem grateful. I mean that. It is also touching that he wants to make sure his daughter sees the message (like there would be some world where that didn’t happen). But he does seem genuinely uninterested through most of the message. He even reacts to it with kind of an “Ah, I usually go in the other room for this part” look. Rachel is doing her thing, giving a Ms. Rachel reading of Travis Bickle’s famous line, and De Niro seems mostly nonplused.
Now I do want a world where Ms. Rachel delivers the same monologue but wholly seriously. Maybe that’s what they asked and she didn’t wanna do anything that would scare any kids or anything. I wouldn’t want her to go crazy, but a deadpanned Ms. Rachel spouting Travis Bickles bulls*** would be pretty funny. But, we got this instead, which is fun too.
