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

[Elilanna]

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?

God I cringe at the term “crunchy” is that just me?

I was never too set on my DC not watching TV - we tend to have it on in the background. There are certain shows I don't let them watch (just because I find them irritating) like Peppa Pig, Cocomelon and Bing. I don't mind some kids shows (Bluey and Hey Duggee are great) or the odd Disney film. Sometimes it's easier to stick the TV on for a bit for them if you've been out for the day and they're tired but you need to get on with cooking dinner. I don't think there's any harm in that.

Ah yeah, I remember before I had children. When I said they would never have screen time before two, no ipads, only wooden toys, baby led weaning with lovely organic home cooked food. LOL! My kid ate cereal on the sofa this morning watching sesame street.

What I will say, is that DH family didn't have a TV and he struggled at school because of it because he had absolutely no idea what songs kids were singing etc.

You will also find that even Montessori type nurseries while still sometimes blast out the Moana soundtrack.

Nope, not just you. The only thing that should be crunchy is a bag of crisps. If a person is crunchy they should probably see their physiotherapist.

Everyone says you won't stick to your principles, but you might OP. I did, DS doesn't watch any of the shows you mentioned and Peppa and paw patrol are banned. I don't mind a bit of cbeebies every now and then but he had no TV at all until he was nearly two. I am not a 'crunchy', I have a professional job, wash my hair etc.
DS also doesn't have sweets, squash, fruit shoots etc, he's 3 he doesn't need them. We bake together and have home made treats instead. He gets the occasional ice cream of we are on a day out.
He also doesn't have a tablet nor does he watch anything on my phone. You'll find plenty who feel the same way, and plenty who think you're uptight and their DC are in buggies with a packet of skips and an iPhone by eighteen months, let them do their thing, you do your thing.
My DS very happy.
You will parent the way you want to parent.

RewildingAmbridge does your child go to nursery or preschool? It's very easy to say you can avoid all this stuff until you let them loose in the world and they talk to other children and learn about it.

What’s wrong with Disney anyway? I grew up with Disney. I tried to get my kids into it, but they aren’t fussed. We had a Frozen and Cars moment where I couldn’t turn it off but that passed.

By stopping your children from seeing popular items, you are essentially isolating them from their friends

Sometimes my son sees 80s TV and is properly horrified. "Mum, I enjoyed Never-ending story, but HOW is that a U?"

Ah Cocomelon - they were like extended family members for some time, and much loved by my autistic DD. I never figured out what anyone actually did, but they had an amazing pool and massive treehouse slide thing and had a song for everything (as I recall singing the potty song through gritted teeth at various hours, inwardly cringing at the idea of the whole family gathering around said potty, conveying their delight at the contents and high-fiving like mad things), but as much as Mum's ever-cheery smile and empathic expressions felt mildly psychotic at times, those songs are damn catchy and we all seem to have emerged reasonably unscathed and no longer singing Do You Know the Muffin Man while blundering down the aisles of Tesco.

Haha! Good luck with that.

We're all full of big expectations and "I'll do better than that" BEFORE we have kids. But the reality of afterwards is, do what you gotta do to survive. And if that's an hour of Disney+ on a cold and rainy Sunday morning, then so be it.

Case in point, I swore blind that my twins (my first and only kids) were only going to eat healthy, organic food. We started off well, weaning on all home-made, mostly organic, whole foods.
They're 5 and a half now... Yesterday for tea they had fish fingers and wedges, both from the freezer, and some baked beans. And a rice krispie cake for pudding. Oh well.

Oh and without wishing to denigrate her in any way (I would like to be her) but I noticed a definite increase in DH's patience while building a dolls' house with Miss Appleberry singing away in the background 🤔

Her name is Miss Appleberry!

Appleberry?

APPLEBERRY!

My kids weren’t bothered about being dressed in charactors, but they loved the programmes. Made life a lot easier.

100% this.

It's a weird MN thing where people act as if it's impossible to make decisions before your child arrives that you'll stick to. Apparently everyone who planned on safe sleep HAS to end up bedsharing, everyone who plans on zero screens is plonking their 1yr old in front of Cocomelon, everyone who planned on feeding homemade meals is giving them an Ella's pouch or a bit of a Greggs sausage roll in the pram.

We love cocomelon in this house - you can be snobby about it all you want but nursery rhymes and songs are great for language development. My 2 year old now has a full repertoire of nursery rhymes under his belt.

I don't think it's this at all. I think it's that many many mothers put themselves under unrealistic pressure and the babies haven't read the same books. It's about giving permission to use a bit of formula, watch a bit of cbeebies, open a pouch without feeling like a failure - it's like someone else said, we're all perfect parents until we meet our children. At that point we need to give ourselves a break. Of course it's absolutely fine to choose wholesome activities for your child, but you are also not a terrible parent if it turns out your child knows all the words of Frozen by the age of 2. Some of us have the battle wounds, that's all.

My friend made herself ill trying to breastfeed. Her bottle fed daughter is fine (intelligent, kind, musical etc.) My friend now doesn't quite understand why she was quite so desperate - sometimes a kind of madness takes hold of us when we have babies, and it's nice for an older mother to go "hmm, alive, loved, fed, yep, you're doing fine"

Yeah, I got eye rolls when I told people that I wouldn't tolerate a messy house when I had kids. They'd say things like 'Just you wait, kids are messy! You'll need to change when you have kids!'

My son is now 20 months old and, guess what? My house is still tidy. I'm autistic and need order in the space I live so I can properly function. My standards of living haven't altered just because I have a baby. He has plenty of toys but I just put them away in their basket once he goes to bed and voila, the living room is an adult space again.

@TheBirdintheCave I also need a clean house because I used to live in bad circumstances growing up and I can't stand it.

What you've described is normal. There is a reason you want a clean house. Why would anyone want to ban characters though? Sorry, but that's just a stupid thing many of us thought like wooden toys only and no TV ever.

I highly doubt this rule will be enforced because there is No point whatsoever and makes your life difficult for no reason. Now Ettie is screaming and crying for Elsa - your really going to keep up this pointless rule? To what end?

Peppa is banned here. Gobby little madam deserves a trip to the butcher.

Daddy pig is portrayed as an idiot that grandpa pig has to rescue. Grinds my gears

North London by any chance OP??

I don't disagree. It's definitely fine to offer reassurance to new and hoping to be parents that they should feel empowered to loosen up on previous plans if they don't work for them. But that's not what I'm talking about, it's the absolute overwhelming volume of posts laughing at, mocking, and judging OP for having ideas about how she wants to raise her future kids because she can't possibly know a thing until they're here and every plan is going to go to pot. It's cruel and one of the nastiest sides of MN. OP isn't here saying 'help, I'm frazzled trying to work from home and planned on no screens but is it really that bad to stick a bit of Peppa on?'

The number of people falling all over themselves to laugh at and mock the OP is gross. Going by MN you'd think nobody ever parented the way they'd planned to before the baby arrived. Plenty of people have strong ideas about the things they do and don't want to do and... carry that out. It must be cooler to give birth without any prior thought about how you want to do things I guess!

So what was the point of the OP then?

It's in the title?

"WIBU to not allow popular kids characters/music in the house?"

She's asking if she would be unreasonable not to allow popular kids/characters/music in the house?

Did you mean to quote me?