Need your thoughts on Baby Einstein dvds and idea of "educational" stuff for babies generally for Jeremy Vine show today October 30th

[carriemumsnet]

Hi All

We've been invited on to Jeremy Vine's radio show for a discussion based on this story. We have lots of reviews for Baby Einstein stuff on Mumsnet and most are pretty positive. I have to say my mother-in-law got me one for my PFB and we watched it in that way you do with PFBs My memory of it was that it was mind numbing for adults, but calmed her down - mind you I also tried cd's of white noise.. she was a fractious child and there was no Mumsnet in those days . Anyway they want a wider conversation about the rights and wrongs of parents trying to make their children brighter by exposing them to different videos/music/activities. Is this a good or bad thing.

Any thoughts you can pass on before about 12 noon today would be most welcome.

Thanks
MNHQ

yes I use 'educational' tv to make myself feel less guilty about using it at all, but imo Something Special is way better than most of the 'educational' dvds on offer anway.

I think the 'different activities making them brighter' is a bit of a red herring - an 'activity' doesn't have to be french / ballet / yoga at £10 an hour
but Doing A Wide Variety Of Stuff is v important, even if it's only stopping to look at a building site / dropping stones in puddles / baking / messing in the sandpit etc.

oh god they watch tv so what

i watched tv
i LOVED tv mum went on about " too much tv"
i just loved it

oh god they don't watch tv so what

well yes alaska so did I, but that was before 24h CBeebies and DVDs
so we probably watched a max of 3h a day even during a rainy half term, because the rest was rubbish.

If I she wanted to dd could watch nonstop 24-7...

I think children and babies learn a lot more by experiencing different everyday things - watching adults interact and exploring items made of all materials (ie not just plastic toys but things like keys, wooden spoons, food, leaves, anything and everything)

I think the baby DVDs are better than normal TV as that tends to move very fast and have lots of flashing movement and colours which is overstimulating and has been shown to possibly affect brain development.

I read an interesting article a while ago (just before my PFB was born) that traced the evolution of this type of product back to the widespread publication of stories revealing the lives of children in Romanian orphanages - suggesting that because the lack of any stimulation had severely curtailed their emotional and intellectual development, extrapolated from that we have the reverse assumption, i.e. that you can determinedly stimulate any child to academic and intellectual brilliance. Tisn't true, sadly, but it's a great way to make money. Capitalist exploitation of parental anxiety, like so many things.

I always get Jeremy Vine and Jeremy Kyle muddled up. Was a bit that MN was going on Jeremy Vine, then realised it was Radio 2 not the TV programme of "Who's the father of my baby" genre.

The poster who is Jeremy Vile doesn't help my thought processes.

I was the same, Stripey!! I got all excited to think it might be on Kyle at first, then it registered!!!