somewhere in the very recent past, that monkey from Baby Einstein gave way to Dora the Explorer. and i have been praying to the non-existent god for his mercy ever since. i hate it, i seriously seriously hate it. Baby Einstein was awesome, like watching fish to soothing music. just today in the gym i spaced out on the elliptical for like 20 minutes with Animal Planet on the tv. except that i had a much more Squizz\Ethel\The Joint soundtrack. and there were sharks eating baby alligators, and salmon hurling themselves against rocks and then having their corpses eaten by the cast of Baby Einstein.
but this Dora shit has just enough plot to be un-ignorable, but it does things over and over again, and its soooooooooo slow…so slow a 2 year old could figure it out. its like the anti-Bourne trilogy, with annoying voices. i’m going to kill myself.
what makes it all even worse is that G is demanding to watch it non-stop. its seriously making me feel inadequate in that i can not compete. realistically, however, i get bored shitless entertaining G non-stop, cause…cause she does the same 3 things over and over again. Dora is a perfect match.
A sampling of her conversation, while i write:
“beach! park! my mommy. wanna go home. wanna go school. ah beach! wanna go beach. daddy! <some babbling> whatsat? wanna go beach. ooh my mommy. whodat? i wann go beach.”
beckie let’s G watch a lot at night, and by then its often too exhausting to try to keep up with her. So we certainly have fed her obsessions. But the more i think about it, the more i’m convinced G’s been a tv addict all along. it didn’t seem so bad when it was Baby Einstein and mostly just eye candy, but even then it was like heroin for her. She did not learn to like tv, its simply a compulsion to watch, and what is a tinyHuman to do? Makes you realize what a truly evil device the tube can be.
Here’s what the “experts” say:
TV and Toddlers
It may be tempting to put your infant or toddler in front of the television, especially to watch shows created just for children under age two. But the American Academy of Pediatrics says: Don’t do it! These early years are crucial in a child’s development. The Academy is concerned about the impact of television programming intended for children younger than age two and how it could affect your child’s development. Pediatricians strongly oppose targeted programming, especially when it’s used to market toys, games, dolls, unhealthy food and other products to toddlers. Any positive effect of television on infants and toddlers is still open to question, but the benefits of parent-child interactions are proven. Under age two, talking, singing, reading, listening to music or playing are far more important to a child’s development than any TV show. For more information on your child’s health, visit http://www.aap.org.
Ask me if I care. Doctors, IMO, are a bunch of luddites. Of course they hate TV. Its right up there with that wacky internet fad. Dumbasses.
My favorite part: “Any positive effect of television on infants and toddlers is still open to question, but the benefits of parent-child interactions are proven.” Wouldn’t actually want to do a STUDY or something to answer this question. Much better to just sit around spewing completely unfounded warnings with no substantiation whatsoever. This reminds me of the whole “don’t let your HR get over 140 when you are running” bullshit they forced down pregnant women’s throats for years (with zero science behind it, again). I cant believe these morons make $250k a year. What a racket.
When I was a kid, I had the TV schedule memorized by the time I was like 7 ot 8. So yeah, that’s pathetic, but the point is, I watched way too much TV and turned out OK. G will grow up in a world that is so much more media intensive than we can even comprehend now. TV/Internet/Phone/music/Whatever else will be integrated in everything she does. Might as well get her ready now. Hey, maybe she will even learn some Spanish.
Plus, I work for the damn cable company. Job security.