the thing about aric sigman is that he used to appear on tv a lot, which always gives me a giggle. he was richard and judy's resident headshrinker until raj persaud came along. my impression of sigman, as a man rather than scientist, is of an unsufferably pompous arsehole. but i haven't read his book.
you know, i was speaking to my mum about this and she said that i watched a lot of tv as a child. a lot. pretty much all the kids' tv there was, which say a couple of hours a day. they'd just got their first B/W tv and they thought that they were educating me in the ways of the world etcetera etcetera.
and i'm aware that this is spectacularly unscientific but I Just Don't Think It Did Me Any Harm. i like tv. love it, even. but i make my living as a writer and sometime broadcaster so i am biased beyond belief.
dd watches baby einstein dvds (we ripped them off the internet, computer crime fans) and i really think they are excellent. not just for the minutes that they buy me to load the dishwasher but the fact that we enjoy them togehter (me with one eye on the dirty plates). we both stick our tongues out when the dragon does, we both laugh when DD makes elephant noises because she knows that there is a large pachyderm hiding behind some bushes etc etc etc. clearly we have an open-plan living area...
fair enough people who want to grab a few minutes for housework or whatever, but i actually think that that Baby Einstein dvds are A Good Thing. i think dd has learned a lot from them and i enjoy 'talking' with her about what we've seen. (er, tickling each other and making animal noises). and without being a terrible boaster she is at the moment head and shoulders above her peers with regards to communication and words, a portion of which i put down to beign able to cross-refer to baby einstein dvds while reading books, pointing things out etc.
they are actually really well-made pieces of television, beautifully synchronised to the classical music and expertly and imaginatively edited. we got a freebie Brainy Baby dvd in the paper a few weeks ago, nominally the same product but it was unwatchable shite. see, if your mum's a tv critic it's inevitable you'll watch the telly, but you'll only see the good stuff and imho that is baby einstein.