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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

WIBU to switch off Topsy and Tim

195 replies

GoofyIsACow · 13/11/2013 17:46

Beacuse they used the word 'playdate'... Twice!?

In fact 'a double playdate'

FFS! Grin

OP posts:
ZooCheur · 22/11/2013 16:34

I clearly remember a T&T book from when I was little where:

Topsy and Tim go away for the weekend with "Uncle Frank" - they travel in the sidecar of his motorbike, which back-fires a lot.

On the way they stop at a truckers cafe and sit on the knees of truck drivers who show them their trucks

Tim is allowed to eat too many crisps and goes green

Uncle Frank spends the entire story smoking a pipe

I hope they make that episode.

Quangle · 22/11/2013 16:37

YANBU only because those parents are ridiculously jolly and always making things into games and pretending to be monsters and being fun. Sets a really bad example.

Dancergirl · 22/11/2013 17:03

Too many sugar biscuits zoo

Stopputtingitoff · 22/11/2013 17:13

Looking forward to the episode where they get gazumped buying their new house. Bet the Mum and Dad won't be so cheery then.

DoctorGilbertson · 22/11/2013 17:27

oooh cbeebies is really good at the moment. We are really enjoying Topsy and Tim, and Katie Morag too.

Sixtiesqueen · 22/11/2013 17:30

I think it's marvellous and so are the books. They are bloody tedious to read but they are safe and predictable and that's what little kids want.

TedbersMum · 22/11/2013 17:38

My DS (nearly 4) loves watching this programme so I have satisfied myself with watching it purely to analyse what a perculiar household they are.

T&T's mother is either a secret alcoholic or is sniffing something in the kitchen cupboard...she is far too perky, jolly and relaxed to be a real mother of two active children.

She also seems to be suffering from some kind of cleanliness OCD, which is probably where Tim gets his neurotic/anxious side from. In my son's favourite episode they have Mossy the Dog (who belongs to hip modern grandmother Jean) for the day.

Tim put a bowl of water down for the dog and is then immediately instructed to "superwash your hands now" because he has touched the bowl. Tony Welch comes round to play and he and Topsy watch as Tim gives Mossy a dog biscuit. After which his mother instructs that ALL THREE OF THEM must now "go and double super wash" their hands. At this point the dog rolls a toilet roll down the stairs and Mummy grabs it, rolls up the bit that has come unravelled and rushes off to the kitchen saying "I'll have to throw this WHOLE toilet roll away now!"

Next they all get ready to take the dog for a walk and Mummy crouches down at Tim's eye level and says very earnestly "Now do you have the DOG POO bags that Grandma brought round Tim?". Tim looks all anxious and earnest back and rushes off to find them. Clearly an ASDA carrier bag isn't an option and no doubt the bags come with their own sterile gloves attached.

Major calamity then ensues when the phone rings, Mummy has to get it and - horror of horrors - the dog runs onto the next door garden and DOES A POO. You can virtually see Mummy hyperventilating as she says "GET ME THE POO BAG TIM!!!" and rushes off. Next minute she is back, insists they all go back inside (I think she needs to sit down to calm her nerves with something) and Mummy announces that she must now go and wash her hands (no doubt a double super double treble wash).

No wonder poor Tim can't even cope with wearing a new pair of jeans....

ZooCheur · 22/11/2013 17:45

I stand corrected Dancegirl - I'd forgotten about "the gipsy people sitting on the steps of their caravans" too (have just fished the book out)

ZooCheur · 22/11/2013 17:46

Also, in the original 'dentist' book they have Tansy their adopted/foster sister with them, and Roger smashes his tooth when he falls off the table in the dentist's waiting room because he was dancing on it. I notice the new book has no mention of either.

TedbersMum · 22/11/2013 17:57

My favourite Topsy and Tim story as a child was the one where they learn to swim. I remember loving it so much because at the end Tim gets the biggest swirly colourful lollipop ever for finally managing to do it without his arm bands. It helped me love swimming as a child because every time I went to the pool I thought of that picture.

Imagine how gutted I was to get a more recent edition from a charity shop for my son and discover that it has since been updated so that Tim now just gets a certificate.....

directoroflegacy · 22/11/2013 18:12

I want to be that calm, perky mum.
I was so Shock at it that I sky plussed it to show dh.
But he was rather taken with the mum.
WHY did that Derek have to paint over the leak in T and T's room, couldn't they have done it themselves?
And WHY did it take him such a long time?

Also I hate the house - everything is so beige!!

feelingood · 22/11/2013 18:17

i thort this twankishly twee.

Aintnobodylovesnanbetter · 22/11/2013 18:20

I still have my collection of topsy and tim books which my dd loves.we have watched the tv programme and dd likes it but the mum and dad are so annoying

LauraChant · 22/11/2013 18:25

I have the Belgium one.

Love that they haven't updated the names. You don't get many little Tony and Lindas nowadays do you? I think it was Linda anyway, may have misheard.

gazzalw · 22/11/2013 19:14

It seemed very slow when I watched it with DD - and I loved the books as a child many moons ago!

Pixielady83 · 22/11/2013 19:18

Oh good. I've been looking for an outlet to rant about how annoying I am finding topsy and Tim. Mainly offended by the mother who is too thin and far too perky. Apart from that it is so dull! The only topsy and tim book we have is about going to the safari park which is significantly more engaging than the leaky roof episode. DD does love it though... Enjoying Katie morag far more, at least there is nice scenery and suitably harassed parents in that.

JamJarOfDaffs · 22/11/2013 19:20

Commandershepard I agree, don't like the moving house theme dominating so much. Would be OK to feature it as issue and deal with the emotional side of it but this hasn't been done: when they found the house brochure under the sofa the little one who had hidden it because didn't want to move wasn't given comfort/ explanation?

I agree with what loads of people are saying on this thread: good to have ordinary life depicted but rubbish that they haven't updated the sexism!

Also I have to ask, since so many of you have read the books - did Topsy and Tim have "billycans" and what exactly were they? I might be getting muddled with another book (from memory 30 years later!) but those billycans seem so bizarre/ intriguing!!!

SarfEasticated · 22/11/2013 19:20

I am weirdly addicted to the theme tune and even listen to it at work sometimes. My DD(6) likes it - it is pretty boring and I don't like the mum much but I think it's fine. I really like that live in a normal house though. Katie Morag is brilliant, and I watch it wishing I could live there, my dd loves it too thankfully. Not so keen on Old Jack's boat though.

I love Cbeebies though and give thanks for it daily - Nina and the Neurons is worth the licence fee alone IMHO

SarfEasticated · 22/11/2013 19:24

yes to this too: Very OTT wasting a whole loo roll like that, the woman is totally strung out on something.

TedbersMum Fri 22-Nov-13 17:38:46
Tim put a bowl of water down for the dog and is then immediately instructed to "superwash your hands now" because he has touched the bowl. Tony Welch comes round to play and he and Topsy watch as Tim gives Mossy a dog biscuit. After which his mother instructs that ALL THREE OF THEM must now "go and double super wash" their hands. At this point the dog rolls a toilet roll down the stairs and Mummy grabs it, rolls up the bit that has come unravelled and rushes off to the kitchen saying "I'll have to throw this WHOLE toilet roll away now!"

FrameyMcFrame · 22/11/2013 19:48

My bro invented a new series of books, Tipsy and Tom...they were always causing mayhem and confusion and tales of woe.

Sundaedelight · 22/11/2013 19:58

HUGE triumph in our house. DC beg for it as soon as we get home. It's charming and they can relate to it.

HarrietJonesPrimeMinister · 22/11/2013 20:01

It's so very angsty. I hate the sexism and big deal about the moving house will unsettle kids who previously hasn't thought about it.

ZooCheur · 22/11/2013 20:02

Tedbersmum we have 'Learn to Swim' upstairs - will try to locate it later - I remember the lollipop, but the wall-mounted hairdriers with the tubes made the biggest impression on me.

I like the style of the older ones - in 'Paddling Pool' mum says she won't take T&T to the park as it's too far and too hot, but "Topsy and Tim stayed very close to mummy, in case she changed her mind" - the picture is of them climbing on the hoover I think.

PavlovtheCat · 22/11/2013 20:05

I only saw the toilet roll episode and thought:

  1. double Super Wash your hands. What the actual fuck? Made me feel a little but angry for some reason
  2. I can't get my DDs hair to look topsy's, ever ever, suggesting they have hairspray end her hair to fuck, and no child is ever that neat and tidy for more than 5 mins.
  3. The loo roll? What a waste! !

All on all, it's a shocking thing, get rid.

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