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Parenting

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Original poster

Is Tracy Beaker suitable TV for a 9yo?

30 replies

VivaLeBeaver · 11/01/2011 18:50

I know I ought to vet it myself but can't bring myself to sit through an episode. Is the general opinion that its ok or a bad influence?

I seem to rememeber a thread some years ago saying that it encouraged girls to be stroppy and bad mannered. DD wasn't interested in the programme at the time but is now.

OP posts:

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ramonaquimby · 11/01/2011 19:02

tracy beaker is AWFUL, I don't let my kids watch it, including a 9 year old dd

Original poster

VivaLeBeaver · 11/01/2011 19:04

Right, was hoping people would say it was fine. Will watch an episode tomorrow and see what I think. Thanks.

OP posts:

jonicomelately · 11/01/2011 19:05

My nine year old watches it and likes it.

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wuggglemump · 11/01/2011 19:06

I won't let my 9yr old watch (and I do let her watch the soaps) because going into care is almost a reality for her due to my ill health, and when she was watching, she almost thought it would be fun.

jonicomelately · 11/01/2011 19:07

Oh wugglemump. That's awful. Are you really facing that?

wuggglemump · 11/01/2011 19:26

Yep, well not today, as I'm well, but in the long term it is possible.

Not forever, of course, but if I'm hospitalised again.
I was twice last year. I have type 2 brittle asthma so it is pretty serious.

I hated DD watching TB and thinking care was some sort of fun thing, or somewhere she'd like to go.

jonicomelately · 11/01/2011 20:24

I can see why you'd worry. Do you get help with your DD?

Original poster

VivaLeBeaver · 11/01/2011 21:00

Sorry to hear that Wugglemump, must be really worrying.

OP posts:

tanmu82 · 11/01/2011 21:05

I let my DS (7) and DD1 (6) watch it as I loved the book as a child and mistakenly thought the series would be as good....BIG mistake. DD1 gained an attitude that was beyond her years. It was dh who said no more TB as he actually watched an episode and was appalled. So, it is now banned from our telly.

Wugglemump, your situation sounds heartbreaking :( do you not have any family/close friends that could help out or step in?

TheVisitor · 11/01/2011 21:07

I loathe TB with a vengeance. Children are shown that actually, it's okay to be rude and vile to the people who care for them.

jonicomelately · 11/01/2011 21:10

My ds is lovely and he watches it. He has absolutely perfect manners.
He also has a lot of empathy. Watching TB makes him ask questions I'm glad he's asking.

Mutt · 11/01/2011 21:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

teafuelledradical · 11/01/2011 21:11

Wugglemump. What a really hard situation to be in.

Well it might be just me but I quite like TB!I haven't seen any of the early ones, just the more recent ones where she works at the care home, as we've only just got a Freeview box and my dc watch v. little TV anyway. I wonder if the early ones were more stroppified? The first time I saw it (a few weeks ago) I watched it with dd (8 y o) and we talked about how hard it must be to be away from your family.

I am a bit iffy about Horrid Henry though, for much the same reasons.

Hulababy · 11/01/2011 21:12

I don't like it. Luckily 8y dd has never wanted to watch it. She read the book at 7y, in infants and I really found it rather unsuitable tbh.

pointythings · 11/01/2011 21:12

My DDs are big TB fans and I haven't seen any adverse influence on their behaviour - we've sat down and discussed it (they've read the books too) and they are quite clear that it is 1) fiction and 2) TV so very over-dramatised. They never watch it by themselves, DH or I are always there and it often leads us into conversations about behaviour, boundaries and why some children don't live with their parents, and TBH it helps the make sense of some of the things that make it onto the 6 o'clock news as well as giving them an understanding (not excusing) why some of the children around them behave as they do.

TheFallenMadonna · 11/01/2011 21:14

My DC watch it. They haven't learned that it's OK to shout at other people. It is not their life or their circumstances. They think it is quite a sad programme really, and I agree with them.

mumto2andnomore · 11/01/2011 21:17

I really like it, its one of the few things my 2 watch that I could sit and enjoy with them, its often quite touching.

Fine for a 9 year old and like people have said helps them to think about issues.

Mutt · 11/01/2011 21:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DioneTheDiabolist · 11/01/2011 21:32

I like it and watch it with my niece (DS is too young and doesn't like it). DN understands the TB's situation makes her behave the way she does and asks questions about children in care (there are some in her school).

DN is more likely to get stroppy/cheeky after watching Disney, where the heroines don't have TB's problems but have such a bad attitude and massive sense of entitlement. I hate the Disney channel. It's all advertising their products in early years and then equipping kids with attitude to make the nagging intolerable later.

wuggglemump · 11/01/2011 23:19

I don't have a problem with it in theory, it was DD's reaction to it that bothered me.

If I have to be hospitalised again, DD will have to go in to care, and her thinking children's homes are fun, was not something that was appropriate for me to let go.

We do watch 'older' programmes though, such as Eastenders and Coronation Street, but no issues on either show have touched us so directly.

kreecherlivesupstairs · 12/01/2011 07:36

Muggle, that is awful.
OP, DD is 9.8 and TB is banned in this house. After DD watches it or reads it, she does become the beaker. Shouty and disobedient and disrespectful. We don't expect her to the have manners and behavior of a victorian child, but we do expect certain behaviour and if she's been Beakerised she lapses. Dani's house is slightly better and DD adores that.

Original poster

VivaLeBeaver · 12/01/2011 09:55

I watched an episode on YouTube last night and to be honest I didn't think it was too bad. Yes she's a bit stroppy and rude but there were parts where her character showed empathy to others and there was quite a good message to the story.

I suppose its a bit like when I was DD's age and I was banned from watching Grange Hill incase it made me behave like the kids on there. Of course I used to watch it anyway and yes at that age was old enough to know it was fiction and that I wasn't to behave like that.

Will watch a few episodes with DD so we can have a talk about them with her and see how it goes. I've told DD that she's got to stop telling me to "bog off" though.

OP posts:

pagwatch · 12/01/2011 10:01

Dd is 8 and watches it. I think it is shit. It doesn't affect her behaviour. She knows people behave badly and she knows they often do so on tv shows but that that gas bugger all to do with how she us executed to behave at home.

It is actually quite hard to find programmes where pre-teens are displayed as having any manners or anything other than smart arse yet quite stupid.
Tv loves perpetuating the whole teenage, monosyllabic, moody lazy fucker and now, to make preteens feel cool , they do it there too

cory · 13/01/2011 11:31

I'd say it depends on the maturity of the child. Some children will understand that the way Tracy behaves is a measure of how messed up she is and they will see that she often makes a mess of things through the way she handles relations. Others will just think she is funny.

WaterlooSunset · 13/01/2011 14:20

I think it's great! My daughter loves it (she's 9) and has watched it for a few years. She knows the difference between fiction and reality.

Like good fiction, good drama is a great way of getting insights into how other people think and behave - and I genuinely think that TB fits into the category of good drama (in the league of Grange Hill and Byker Grove).

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