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KIDS VIDEOS: HOW THEY DRIVE PARENTS MAD!! |
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| It's like an unwritten rule...once you become a parent, kids educational videos are essential tools of parenting. Never mind if the videos are from Bananas in Pyjamas, Hi-5, Humphrey, Barney or Sesame Street. You can be rest assured that your child would become an obsessed fan of those videos. They will happily sit in front of the TV set while their favourite video for the day or week is playing. It's not so bad if they only watch the video once or twice a day...but as any long-suffering parent can tell you, kids love watching the same video over & over again. Most of the time, it is on at least 3-4 times a day!! |
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| Imagine having to watch or even listen to Barney 4 times a day for an entire week!! It is enough to drive parents insane. My husband & I discovered very early on, when our 2-year-old daughter was only 7 months old, that we absolutely hate Barney! Before she could develop an obsession for all things Barney, we banned him from our home. We were very sure (we still are) that if we had to watch his videos 3-4 times every day, we would have gone out of our minds with frustration & anguish. |
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| I mean, for how long can a parent put up with Barney's sickly sweet "I love you, you love me" song at the end of every episode?? And for how long can a parent endure his "everything is going to be all right & everyone is a friend" mentality? We only watched his videos once (per video) and it was enough to make us want to find the person who created Barney & demand to know why that person had to plague parents with Barney videos. |
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| The same thing goes for the Teletubbies. How can they be justified as an educational kids' program? They don't talk. All they can do is make stupid gibberish sounds that really get on my nerves. They are teaching kids to make stupid sounds in place of proper speech. I think the Teletubbies series is detrimental to young children learning to speak. My husband & I have made the conscious choice & effort to ban all Teletubbies videos, merchandise (the amount of money we save on this!!) & TV programs from our house. We strongly dislike the 4 characters and we definitely don't wish to expose our child to such bad programs. |
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Unfortunately, we have no control over what she watches while she is at child care. We are aware that they allow the children to watch Teletubbies & we have expressed our disapproval of those 4 characters & their videos to our daughter's carers. They too believe that the Teletubbies are teaching young children the wrong communication skills. |
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| Yet, it's unbelievable that there are so many parents out there who permit their children to watch such programs. They honestly believe that these programs won't affect their children's speech development. Well, we beg to differ on that view. Though we're not absolutely sure that it will have an adverse effect on our child, we don't intend to take that risk. Our child is too precious for that. |
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So instead, we introduce her to "The Animal Shelf" series. It is an excellent production & we are delighted that our daughter has taken to the videos happily. The other videos our daughter is permitted to watch are from Bananas in Pyjamas, The Wiggles, Hi-5 and good old Sesame Street. I'm sure that almost every parent has grown up with Sesame Street. I did & I had fond memories of the afternoons I spent in front of the TV with my younger sister, watching Sesame Street. |
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| The way I see it, kids' videos can either be a God-sent parenting aid to parents or a torture device for parents. Personally, I think they are a mix of both. The videos can buy parents valuable free time for house chores while at the same time, they can drive parents insane with the same tunes played over & over &over...we know from personal experience. |
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| When our daughter was going through her "Wiggles stage", we ended up hearing their songs in our heads even when we lie in bed trying to go to sleep!! Once, my husband even hummed a Wiggles' tune while driving us to a family outing! He could not believe how much that particular tune had stuck in his head. |
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| But for the marketing gurus, kids' videos are a sure-fire way of making money. No parent would be without a kids' video at home. It is common that many parents tend to have a collection of kids' videos. Doesn't matter what videos...it is a known fact that parents rely on such videos to stay sane yet...it is these very same videos that drive parents to despair too. |
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| Given a chance, I think parents would love to do without kids' videos. But unfortunately, parents need such videos to occupy & entertain the children when chores needed to be done. |
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However, in fairness, there are kids' videos out there that provide our children with sound educational information. I would like to think that kids' videos aid parents in teaching children about values, the alphabet, numbers & colours... |
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| In conclusion, if you think that I am against kids' videos, let me say this. I am most appreciative for the role kids' videos play in educating, entertaining & occupying my youngster every day. I would be at a loss without them, honestly. Especially when I need the time to prepare meals or to do some house chores or to complete my university assignments. But, in the long run, I think parents should remember that videos aren't a substitute for a parent's part in the nurturing & education of our youngsters at home. If we combine our individual efforts with kids' videos, our children will do all right. |
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