Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

To judge my friend for letting her DS aged 2 watch Power Rangers?

44 replies

Tryharder · 10/04/2009 19:07

Spent the afternoon at a friend's recently and she had Cartoon Network/Jetix on the entire time and her son who's 2 was glued to what appeared to be back to back episodes of Power Rangers (with "real" actors as opposed to a cartoon version)

I was a bit at the violence which included one man getting his face burned!! Her DS loved it and was copying the fighting scenes etc. I was a bit and my friend said that her DS won't watch anything else and that CBeebies is too babyish.

Now, my DS1 who's 4 only watches CBeebies and /or Milkshake because we are probably the last remaining family in the UK without a Sky/Virgin subscription. DS1 moans a bit if In the Night Garden comes on but is happy to watch Balamory/Peppa Pig and a couple of other old favourites.

Anyway, was discussing this with DP the other night and he said we should get Sky as DS1 will be left out when he goes to school in Sept when the other children are discussing BenTen and Power Rangers etc.

So AIBU? Do other people let their preschoolers watch violent cartoons or things like Power Rangers or am I being a bit of a wuss? I just can't believe it's right for a 2 year old to be kick boxing in front of a telly!

OP posts:

worley · 10/04/2009 20:17

"People wonder why society is getting increasingly violent. I don't."

noonki, i dont think that this increase in violence can really be put down to childrens cartoons can it? these hero type cartoons have been around for a long long time,
lack of disipline and guidence.
cartoons/childrens programs such as spiderman and he-man, where fighting etc have always been about, and to be honest charcaters in the beano were always not the best example before these cartoons were about.

tassisssss · 10/04/2009 20:21

noonki - "absolutely pointless" - fair point! Ds does not watch a lot of TV, he loves Ben 10, he plays with his figures for hours.

His Dad watches StarTrek, I watch the odd chick flick, I guess they're pretty pointless too. For me it's about chilling, I can handle the fact that it's not educational. Now Horrid Henry is another story, I'm all for banning that!

noonki · 10/04/2009 20:29

fair dos! I just hated Yu Gi Oh so much (and had no say in what DSS watched) that I vowed DSs wouldnt watch the similar crap...

noonki · 10/04/2009 20:29

fair dos! I just hated Yu Gi Oh so much (and had no say in what DSS watched) that I vowed DSs wouldnt watch the similar crap...

noonki · 10/04/2009 20:32

worley _ do think the increased amount of violence in general on our screens (be it computers/tv for adults or kids) is definately going to influence violence.

Not in it's own right but alongside poor discipline etc.

mumof2andabit · 10/04/2009 20:32

But by banning programs or purposfully avoiding them arent you making them seem more interesting, elusive, dramatic and therefore making them even more appealing to lo's who would be more likely to take it seriously?

poshwellies · 10/04/2009 20:40

My ds (6) watches Power Rangers (truly awful!) and Ben 10 (when it was on CITV) but understands that it's make believe,and I don't see any violence from him-he's more interested in the alien figures and uses them for imaginative play..

A few children in his class attend martial art,and they act out that during playtime,too young imo.

hester · 10/04/2009 20:45

YANBU. I don't even have freeview - our communal aerial is rubbish and it will only download the Men & Motors Channel! So we only have the main four terrestrial channels, which means more use of DVDs than TV for dd (3.5). She watches Dora, Maisy, Mr Bean, wonderPets, Balamory, Rubber Dubbers and, occasionally, still Teletubbies. Babyish? Maybe, and if she feels out of step once she starts school we'll think then about what to do. But right now I see absolutely no reason on this earth to get her started on violent programmes that are too old for her.

coppertop · 10/04/2009 20:58

Dd (3) used to watch Power Rangers with her older brothers. They're not interested in acting out scenes and dd is only interested in the Ranger that she has a bit of a crush on.

They all watch Ben 10 too. Again no acting out of scenes and no violence.

They watched an episode of Tom and Jerry a couple of days ago and IMHO it was far more violent than the other two programmes. Tom repeatedly smacking the dog in the face with a frying pan is one scene that springs to mind.

Cartoons hsve been based on violence for many years. T&J has been around since the 1940s.

mumof2andabit · 10/04/2009 21:02

Good point coppertop I used to LOVE tom and jerry when I was little but when we let ds watch it the other day I was shocked at how graphic it was. And looney tunes daffey duck was SMOKING.

Makes ben 10 look like head boy.....

noonki · 10/04/2009 21:08

but mumof2 the op is talking about a 2 year old. how would they know they are having it 'banned'.

My 3 year old still believes that the tv is broken each morning!

mumof2andabit · 10/04/2009 21:17

Lol noonki I was talking in a broader sense. My ds is nearly 3 and goes along quite happily with the fact that our local bakery closes as soon as we come close some days but other things he picks up on.

My point was also that to ds it is something enjoyable (to him) to watch but that he knows in real life is wrong. And that a slightly older child watching it for the first time might not have such a clear distinction after only watching balamory etc which are comparable to real life. Turing into 10 diffrenet aliems by pressing your watch is obviously not comparable to real life!

oldraver · 10/04/2009 21:22

You can tell the kids who watch these type of shows at my DS's pre-school. They are high karate kicking and hi-yah-ing in you face. Very annoying your trying to see to your DC and you have one of these children screeching at you

mumof2andabit · 10/04/2009 21:24

My son watches these programs and does not hi-ya in anyones face at pre school. I think you should be refering to that annoying childs parents and their own methods rather than a program that LOTS of children watch.

coppertop · 10/04/2009 21:34

Mine aren't into copying the moves either. My 8yr-old does martial arts and doesn't even copy those moves outside of the club. Ds2 has no interest in that side of things either, despite having more energy than most and always needing to be moving about and doing something.

You might notice the children who copy the moves but it would be wrong to assume that all children who watch the programmes do this.

oldraver · 11/04/2009 12:24

Mumof... I'm just saying how I see it. Two kids at pre-school are like this one more than the other. The one who does it in your face, spends almost all his time talking/re-enacting moves from this programme and asking other children if they have seen it (he will even come up to adults and start on about it) and showing the others his 'moves'. IMO is not a suitable programme, at least for a three year old. If he wasnt allowed to watch it, he wouldn't be able to copy.

Coppertop ..Im was not assuming ALL children do this. Mt words were... You can tell the types of kids who watch these shows at my DS's pre-school. I was referring to them NOT alll kids who watch this show

Rewards · 15/04/2009 21:05

well i personally love Ben10 - all together now

it started when an alien devise did what it did, and stuck itself apuon his wrist with secrets that it hid.........

my ds1 didnt even know what tv was ntil he was over 2 years of age (he is now 5)

ds2 who has just turned 2 how ever is well tuned to it and loves "bear in the big blue house" (and ben10, power rangers) - but then i am a bad mum who sticks the tv on so i can mumsnet all day

special2shoes · 15/04/2009 21:07

this thread brings back memories, ds loved PR, he watched it as much as he could.
oh those were the days

SammyK · 15/04/2009 21:14

DS still chooses CBeebies aged four, and sometimes milkshake but I try to avoid that due to the adverts for ridiculously useless and overpriced plastic tat. My DP worries he is being left behind but I would rather he was watching Thomas or Something Special than 'fantasy violence'.

I have actively avoided letting him (and his older step brothers when they were younger) watch power rangers, someone gave DS a toy one and he started doing the fight moves like his older cousin does. He has never seen the programme but associates it with fighting as that is what cousin and the boys at school do.

At nursery there are 8 boys in the class (small class)and 3 of them wear ben10 watches and caps to school . Didn't know it had guns in it, can anyone give me a quick explanation of it please?

I am happy to leave DS in his all consuming Thomas obsession for a little longer I think.

Flip

1 2