Page 12 | WIBU to not allow popular kids characters/music in the house?

Mulhollandmagoo · 09/08/2022 10:26

What does crunchy mean????

Rowen32 · 09/08/2022 10:28

Elilanna · 09/08/2022 07:37

No kids yet, but I'm hoping to have them in the near-ish future, work in the early childhood sector and have a young niece and nephew so I'm quite aware of what's popular with the little ones these days, but I'm personally not a fan and would rather not expose my own children to any of that media, at least not when they're very small - but I've heard a lot of criticism of this approach, that "only crunchy hippie mums do that!" and "it's part of our culture, you're depriving them of an important part of childhood!" Specifically I'd be avoiding Disney, Cocomelon, and the Wiggles, and even things I don't mind wouldn't be on baby's clothes & other belongings as I don't believe in turning your child into free advertising for a popular brand. I'm otherwise not very "hippie" or "crunchy", this is just the one thing where I'd like to limit their exposure.

So... tell me I'm not the only one who wants to do this?

Until what age? I don't let my children watch screens until an appropriate age (3 usually) and then only for a little bit during the day but after that once something is age appropriate and they enjoy it they get to choose..
Disney is lovely, not sure why you'd want to withhold that.
As I said it all depends until what age you're talking about.
I wasn't allowed watch certain programmes when I was younger and ended up being bullied for it as other kids realised - looking back it was pointless, I'd have been far better being allowed watch them..

Mamapep · 09/08/2022 10:33

Yeah good luck haha

LondonJax · 09/08/2022 10:38

If it's just those programmes @Elilanna then they are pretty easy to avoid. DS didn't see much of Disney when he was little, not because we don't like them (now have Disneyplus and we've been to Disneyworld as I love Disney!) But simply because we did CBeebies etc and there wasn't a lot of Disney on the channels we watched.

DS never got into Peppa Pig - he used to turn it off if it came on when he was a toddler! His love was In The Night Garden, Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder as well as Mr Tumble. All of which we watched together and chatted about. He still has fond memories of being swirled manically on our knees if the Ninky Nonk came on the Night Garden.

He's never been one for 'branded' kids clothes so didn't have much with Bob or Thomas on them - it's pretty easy to find things with other patterns or symbols on them.

I suppose my point is that, if most programmes are watched together and you're interacting with your child about the programme, kids TV is fine. Of course we used TV as a baby sitter if we needed DS to stay put whilst we did something but most of the time it was a chance to breathe and have a coffee.

Oh and DS's favourite programme...Murder She Wrote! As that would be on about 3pm most days when he was little - just about the time I'd need a sit down and couldn't cope with kids TV stuff! He still remembers that he used to give a cheesy 'Jessica Fletcher' style smile at the end of it as that's what the character did!

Mammyloveswine · 09/08/2022 10:40

we're all perfect parents until we have kids...

Nameandgamechange123 · 09/08/2022 10:40

I was brought up as one of those children. I never felt like I fit in at school as I didn't have any of the same cultural references. 😭

LondonJax · 09/08/2022 10:41

Oh and just to add - DS didn't have a screen other than the TV. When we went out we'd take books and toys to keep him occupied. He didn't get a mobile phone until he was 11 and started secondary school and that was my old 'steam driven' one. Neither of us used our phone for anything other than texting and phone calls. So he never saw us using a screen other than the PC or the TV. The excitement of a programme on a portable screen never really got started with him.

Now, however, he watches videos on his phone. Because his friends do...

BEL88 · 09/08/2022 10:45

You of course CAN have a say in what they watch/wear at a early age.
In this house for SOME reason Blippi doesn't work on our tv...
Also Justin/Mr Tumble gets turned over discretely 🤣
What shows would you allow?
I agree with one of the previous posters that it may stop conversations/friend making in school/parks. A few boys were playing spiderman and my DS just went right on in and started playing and chatting with them. Another time a child was wearing a paw patrol hat so that sparked a friendship!

Also have to agree that if you remove Disney then you're missing out on Bluey 🤣

bluesky45 · 09/08/2022 10:51

We don't have cocomelon or the Wiggles in our house. Or various other children's characters I don't like, blippi being one. We do have Disney. Basically, the kids can only watch what I let them watch, mostly based on what I like and what I find annoying. You do what you like. No-one has ever said anything to me about the TV I let them see and the TV I don't let them see. How weird to even have an opinion on that.

Notjustabrunette · 09/08/2022 10:53

What’s wrong with the wiggles? Kids songs sung well, what’s not to like?

Pinkandgreentrousers · 09/08/2022 10:54

Mine are all older but I did ban Barney because it was truly awful.

whoruntheworldgirls · 09/08/2022 10:55

Up to you, but i wouldn't restrict too much, Bluey for example is great, my daughter is so much better at independent play since watching.
I made sure my daughter never watched Peppa Pig, she'd see kids toys/clothes with it on but if she asked about i just said no and she moved onto something else, was never an issue.
My goddaughters watched it when we babysat and i despised it, hence not allowing my child to watch it. Didn't mind most other shows, apart from Bing (annoying little sod) which i tolerated.

Seeingadistance · 09/08/2022 10:57

EnjoyingTheSilence · 09/08/2022 07:44

I too was the greatest parent before I actually had children

Yip!

Minesril · 09/08/2022 10:59

Champagneforeveryone · 09/08/2022 08:14

I was exactly the same OP.

It came back to me one day a few years later as I folded the Lightning McQueen bedding, boxer shorts, PJ's and socks. This was after I had removed the Lightning McQueen cup, bowl, cutlery water bottle and lunchbox from the dishwasher, and cleared away the Lightning McQueen cars and race track.

I'm not truly certain how the bastardly little red car made it into every facet of our lives though I'm pretty certain DM was a driving force initially but the utter pride and joy these items gave DS made me relent.

We're actually packing the house up in a major declutter in preparation for our new house to complete, and we are still carrying round a beer box full of chipped and well loved die cast Cars. DS is off to uni in September and has flatly refused to countenance passing them on 😆

Aw you've reminded me of when my now 8 year old was little. We used to go to a car boot sale where one regular always had a load of die cast cars. DS would sit there carefully going through them looking for ones with eyes

ThinkingaboutLangClegosaurus · 09/08/2022 11:00

EnjoyingTheSilence · 09/08/2022 07:44

I too was the greatest parent before I actually had children

Cactusprick · 09/08/2022 11:05

User478 · 09/08/2022 07:40

You do what you think is best with your hypothetical children.

You do what you can with your actual children.

I quite like the Wiggles.

this

Borgonzola · 09/08/2022 11:08

I hate pink sparkly shit and unicorns.

I have a daughter. She is 2 weeks old. At the moment she's in bright colours and fun prints. If in a few years time she wants pink sparkly shit and unicorns, she will have pink sparkly shit and unicorns, because she will be her own person and I want her to feel like she is capable of expressing herself rather than trying to please other people.

hth.

Minesril · 09/08/2022 11:10

I couldn't ban character clothes because i myself own tops featuring Ninjago, Darth Vadar, Princess Leia, way too many Harry Potter, and even a Yoshi one which I wear occasionally to make DS smile.

MummBRaaarrrTheEverLeaking · 09/08/2022 11:11

I too, tried to draw the line at character clothing (especially character clothing with slogans on them like 'be kind') and to be fair, DD(4) has an elsa top and a rapunzel nightie and that's about it. But I've just bought her a Miraculous backpack for school, because I know she'll absolutely love it.

I also tried to draw the line at Peppa Pig but mainly because I couldn't stand the blasted program. Limited amount of success, she does watch it but not obsessively like other stuff. My main thing pre-child was I thought I'd keep her away from the tablet as long as possible, and now she's on ours and getting a new one for Christmas 😂

heddgiemum · 09/08/2022 11:13

Ah, you're getting a hard time here OP but I kinda get you.

I didn't like Disney, a lot of the clothing is not ethically produced- sweat shops and the like, so didn't want Disney having my money.

I didn't pay for sky tv so mine never has access to the Disney channel. And as I couldn't stand all the adverts on C5 Milkshake, mine pretty much grew up on CBeebies / CBBC. Numberjacks, Balamory, The night garden, Horrible Histories were all hits in my house.

It worked until they went to preschool / school. Then friends gave them Disney clothes / dressing up / DVDs for birthdays, hand me downs etc etc and so my dc pretty much ended up with it all. I still didn't but it though, but others did. So yeah, pretty unavoidable!

Underroad · 09/08/2022 11:13

Yeah…I was going to do that too. Let’s just say that it didn’t happen. I also convinced myself that I would only let my child watch tv programmes that I had vetted and selected myself, there would be no adverts ever seen by his tender eyes and so on. I was such an ace parent before I actually had a child.

aSofaNearYou · 09/08/2022 11:15

Well my chance my DD is just not into those things. She likes a fair few CBeebies things but the things you've mentioned she doesn't like. Just wait until you have a child, they will like what they like (which while young will be largely guided by what you show them).

Cactusprick · 09/08/2022 11:16

Elilanna · 09/08/2022 08:27

@Antsinmypantsneedtodance yeah, I'm specifically against Cocomelon and Disney for the reasons you mentioned - too American for my liking. Certainly no Mickey or Minnie. My dad said the same when I was born, but was overruled by Mum. Dad preferred I watch anything that didn't have American accents in, but Mum had grown up with Disney so...

@Newmummy9 - yeah, I wouldn't do a blanket ban on all TV shows/cartoons - it'd just be the specific stuff that would drive me insane.

@Coffeaddict - totally fine with books. It's just those specific TV programmes I'd rather avoid.

Ahhh so it’s about what would drive you insane. You don’t sound like you’re ready for kids. Quite a selfish view. Perhaps it’ll change when you do have children and you see the joy it brings them if they do happen to see any of these shows you wish to ban.

also, who know what the future holds. Just saying. Strange thing to fixate on and start a thread about before you’ve even had the miracle of pregnancy.

FallopianTubeTrain · 09/08/2022 11:19

🤣🤣🤣

My favourite thing about this thread is the idea that there is a single parent alive that wakes up in the morning and thinks 'you know what would be great, if we could all watch cocomelon'

Eloise791 · 09/08/2022 11:20

Sounds fine to me, op, not actually v restrictive at all. It’s easy to avoid character clothing and a couple of tv shows. I wouldn’t get hung up on whether other people think it’s “crunchy” whatever that means. People always have opinions on parenting so best to learn to trust your own judgement.