To let my children watch barbie movies?

[JerryGarcia]

My DM was very critical of me letting my DDs (4 and 2 years old) watch barbie movies. They are both super active, have wide ranging interests including climbing, scooting, making forts, making potions etc. They both love spiderman too. How bad is it to let them watch barbie (its probably on 1-2 times a month).

My DD 14 and 16 loved them when they were little, they still talk fondly of them. I liked a few too - I found the fairy tale ones better, not so keen on the more modern ones.

The one where she’s a secret mermaid is particularly good too!!

Barbie is great, she’s a self made woman, looks after her siblings, has a great friendship circle, she must have quite a few degrees for all those careers, she’s a business owner, has multiple houses, vehicles and animals, the woman has her own plane fgs, I want her life 😂

It does them NO harm At All. Proper grown up ones with kids of their own, each incredibly different to the other... can see how plastic fantastic did them any harm.

we we're having a good laugh at the song from when they were little the other day.

barbie world I think it was called

Watching Barbie movies in their childhood has left a terrible legacy for my DDs - neither one of them think they will ever be happy unless they can find man named Eric, or possibly Derek…..
(it’s not just me right, there was an inordinate amount of Erics and Dereks wasn’t there?)

OP you've now got two threads about you mum... maybe you need to end her visit!

I can’t wait for the Barbie film next year. Although perhaps Ryan gosling is a bit too old to play Ken

It's healthy and a positive thing for girls to watch shows that are all or predominantly female characters.

That way you see the clever girl, the sporty girl, the daring girl, the geeky girl etc instead of just 'the girl' surrounded by male characters.

Go for it!

Nothing wrong with it at all. The problem with people raising children in a non-gendered way is that it sometimes seems to mean that girls doing or watching stereotypically girly things is sneered at or banned. Boys don't have a ban on the girly things though. Their parents are doing the 'right thing' by allowing their son to take part in stereotypically female activities.

It means that the list of acceptable activities for girls is again limited in some way.

My 6 year old son loves the Barbie TV programme they show on pop and has seen one of the film's and enjoyed it. I imagine the sort of person who has a problem with girls watching it would approve of my boy watching it. But what's the difference...?

😂 never a truer word said.

It goes without saying that I love her but we live in different cities and so see each other for a few days at a time (which is always a day or two longer than I'd like) and she manages to get my hackles up about multiple things every time. There's always a criticism or a judgement bubbling just below the surface. She also has issues around being excluded from family groups and so when I asked her to leave after a particularly nasty christmas day, all hell broke loose and she talks about how it traumatised her 4 years later.

My 4yo and 2yo DDs love Barbie movies!

That's nothing! Jeez. I like to not put mine in front of movies to zone out, except at bedtime on designated movie nights, (this doesn't include family movie nights), but I let mine watch Barbie the series on repeat, but she is doing other things.

Is it the content or the length of time?

You obviously really value your mum's opinion so ask her expand on her reasons why she thinks it's bad.

My DS 12 still watches a barbie movie when he feels poorly. Both DC loved them.

Both DC are also academic and lovely children.

My dd watched them loved them and lead her wanting to go watch professional ballet as she watched nutcracker and Swan Lake so would she be upset about them wanting to go to the ballet?

My 11 year old has loved Barbie all her life, I hated barbie all my life as a tomboy she was everything I was against. However, all the Barbie movies are very much women doing it for themselves. She does everything, seems to be qualified in everything and the men never need to come to her rescue in fact the opposite. The TV series is also quite funny and tongue in cheek. I would tell her to watch them before commenting.

Why is 'making forts' the pinnacle of Good Parenting? (Bonus points if it's done in a forest).

My 6 & 4 year old sons like the barber films. And the DC super girls. Nothing wrong with liking a bit of everything!

My DDs loved the Barbie movies. My 18 year old twins started doing Barbie movie nights a few months back.

if anyone know where you can stream them please tell me.

I think they're fine in moderation. The body image is the worst part about them but it's hard to find any cartoon that doesn't have the girls as batting eyelid wide eyed chibi type characters anyway.

Ada twist is good on Netflix if you wanted an alternative though.

I had always been staunchly anti-Barbie, but have conceded she's cleaned up her act and now allow my DCs to watch it. DD1 has never been particularly fussed by it, but DD2 is a huge fan of the TV show and dolls. The only issue has been DD2 taking a shine to the whiny accents and American vocab (eg sidewalk for pavement); she uses them constantly when playing. She tried to use it when talking to us too, but we stamped that out pretty quickly!

The body image is the worst part about them but it's hard to find any cartoon that doesn't have the girls as batting eyelid wide eyed chibi type

I suggest you watch Barbie’s Magic of Pegasus and you’ll realise that there is NONE of that. Quite the opposite.

THANK YOU for reminding me about one of my favourite childhood films Barbie and the Rockers Out of This World. Absolutely magic. DD is watching it now on YouTube. Can’t believe I forgot about it! I’m so happy!

DD21 loved the Barbie movies as a child. The Princess and the Pauper, the Magic of Pegasus, the Island Princess, the Mermaid one. We could sing all the songs and there was actually a lot of great humour in them. A couple of years back her and her college friends had some Barbie movies nights - apparently it's a thing! I really wouldn't worry at all. My DD is a complete non conformist when it comes to female gender stereotypes and in fact these films were pretty good for that stuff in the end.

Oh and Fairytopia!

Mine love Barbie on Netflix. My son (13!) is also very au fait with it - more than he’d ever let on to his friends! I think it’s really good and totally harmless. My girls get a huge amount of imagination stimulus from it and recreate scenes with their own dolls or use an episode to inspire something else.