To think kids TV is shite now?

[GoodnightAdeline]

DD has just discovered the delights of Come Outside with aunty Mabel on YouTube and it’s taken me down a kids TV nostalgia wormhole. What strikes me is how gentle the programs were - ‘today we’re going to find out how soup is made’ - compared to today’s dopamine-fests like Bing and Cocomelon.

AIBU to wish kids TV was a bit more gentle and educational and less hyper?

Because it just regurgitates songs with really bad animation. Having a child just watching song after song with no other interaction can't be good. I see no true educational benefits.

If we’re talking Children of the Stones type kids weird drama then yes it was defo better and weirder back then!

Just wait until you see Ryan's Toy Reviews 🤷🏻‍♀️ You will never have changed the channel so quick in your f'ing life, I promise you

@inappropriateraspberry thats fair enough but then puts it in the same category as other non educational shows like peppa pig, paw patrol, Thomas the tank engine, the night garden etc etc

there was a lot of “fake news” about how it was supposedly more dopamine hitting and frame rates etc but I’ve never found any actual facts. Just curious is all.

Peppa Pig is awful as well! Very badly behaved child who gets away with it! Also think Paw Patrol is actually pretty weird - a mayor with chickens? In the Night Garden is aimed at younger children - supposedly based on research with forming first words, but another odd one! My children never really got it. Thomas the Tank Engine usually has a moral story, written by a vicar!

DD used to be addicted to Peppa and Cocomelon when she was 2 but now she is nearly 5 she chooses to watch the more gentle or educational programs. I do miss the 90's TV shows though.

Fast paced shows such as Cocomelon, peppa pig etc have been shown in research to impair executive function in young children (if I recall they used 8 minutes or similar of watching time!) which in turn can cause behavioural issues in young children.

@Littlesunshinemoon do you happen to have any links to the research? I’ve been trying and trying to find some actual data as I’m really interested in this but there isn’t anything I can seem to find apart from random internet blogs / articles with no actual backing. The frame speed is actually the same across pretty much all cartoons universally - so it’s interesting to know how people define “fast paced” and less stimulating etc.

@Giveupnow yes let me dig it out - I did an assignment on it in my MA in childhood! I’ll PM it over x

I'm a tot...

Je suis un tot...

Oh come on OP, remember Fun House, Best The Teacher, Timmy Mallet etc.

Compare those with Our Family, Maddie Moate, Let’s Go For A Walk, etc.

Also have you watched Bing? Nothing happens. He goes to the shop with Flop, or goes to the park and feeds the ducks, and the ducks are a bit scarier than he’d imagined. Normal toddler stuff. That is why toddlers love it.

I will grant you Baby Jake and Cocomelon seem to be some sort of incomprehensible fever dream.

But the former are aimed at a very different age to the latter.

Peppa is banned here, it's dire, ditto cocomelon and Bing.
There's other stuff that's fine though, Bluey, let's go for a walk, my world kitchen, even octonauts had taught me a fair amount and the Mariana trench.
My bar might be low though, I grew up in the era of button moon, fun house, knightmare and bodger and badger. None of which had any educational content, were definitely over stimulating and could be quite frightening

YABVVVU Bluey is the best show ever made. Makes up for absolutely everything else.

Also Saturday morning kids' TV, round the bend was a fever dream presented by a crocodile from a sewer and ghost train hosted by Nobby the sheep?! Showing cartoons like count duckula, pinky and the brain, Zzapp, even stuff like wizadora and rainbow for younger kids was mental.

It was all on TVAM in the school holidays, and we all watched it. There was no CBeebies/CBBC split then, everyone just watched everything as there was so little children’s TV on.

I think every generation thinks their own was better somehow.

But also, I loathe waffle

Tilly, Tom and Tiny…

What's the one with Chris Jarvis and Poi? (Don't know if I'm spelling her name right). It's the only thing DH would watch with DD for ages. Always outside, just them mucking about with some soft toys and dressing up.

Show me, Show me?

Hard disagree! Moon & Me, Kiri and Lou, Tiny Wonders, Twirlywoos, Patchwork Pals. Hey Duggee, Bluey, Octonauts. Numberblocks and Alphablocks. Lots of really good stuff that isn't Cocomelon or Blippi.

We did enjoy introducing her to the original Mr Men and the Wombles, though.

Oh god were those their names! I always heard “Teeny Tot and Tiny”. And apparently a nameless one

I loathed that bloody show, and was more than willing to believe the names were inane as well.

When I was a kid in the 80s and 90s , we only had 4 channels. No sky for us until the late 90s in my house.
I remember watching BBC 1 and ITV after school, BBC 1 used to show dramas for kids, usually a series of 6 episodes.

Weekends were good too in the mornings.

Looking back , I think the tv shows for kids were better 30 years ago than they are now.

Most people have hundreds of tv channels now, plus demand tv where kids can watch what they want whenever they want .