In The Night Garden- is RUBBISH - Ds loves it - I want to ban it-should I ?

[Oblomov]

Ds 3.5 tells me he likes it - he can see it on the mumsnett page - he can name all the characters.
I was a bit shocked, becasue I didn't realise that he had watched it
So I sat down to watch it myslef.
What a load of tosh.
And I hate these programmes where they don't speak properly = like telletubies - I think it is wrong - mind you buttton moon and the clangers were the same.
I think I should ban all tv programmes that are really bad.
When I kind of insinuated this to ds he went mad - telling me how much he loved it.

AIBU ?

Oh, and repetition helps very young children learn the skills of anticipation and prediction - absolutely essential pre-reading skills. Btw.

Oblomov - Night Garden is banned in this house. as are teletubbies, boobah and lazy town

For several reasons

If you as a parent decide then you dont want your kids to watch something stand by your convictions and dont let them watch it!!

Why Yurtgirl? Why?

Aloha - Several reasons
For starters My ds is a bright 5 year old I challenge you to list for me the ways in which you think watching night garden will benefit him
(Not that everything he does needs to be of educational benefit of course!}

aloha i've started to repeat the end bit, ds is delighted by this and makes enormous fuss if i forget.

it is such a fascinating programme, so much more intruiging than most children's telly which bores the hell out of both of us.

fwiw I wouldnt let any child of any age watch it!

It is quirky,charming and gentle. I cannot see any reason on earth to 'ban' it. My five year old and two year old were watching it together last night and laughing away. Ds cracked up every time they asked us to 'wave to the wottingers', and I actually explained to him that little children could learn to guess what happens next from the repetition, which helps them understand books when they learn to read.
And repetition is funny.

Following characters on a wavy path is a skill that helps young children develop an understanding of geometry - hence the use of it in Teletubbies and The Night Garden.
There is constant use of counting, the characters are different sizes and seeing that is also a pre-number skill.
And aside from all this, I just don't get why anyone would want to 'ban' something as transparently harmless and gentle.

yurtgirl what tv programmes do get past your censorship then?

I know a child who can't speak English who love it. Although in fairness, this little boy loves Thomas more!

But there are so many other programmes on cbeebies that are marvellous and fantastic. As a parent who makes sure her kids dont watch more than 90 mins tv on a school day why oh why would they want to watch night garden

AND once they have watched it (which they did once) why oh why would I want to listen to ds saying nickernackernickernackernickernackernooooooooooo non stop constantly for half an hour

I just cant 'get' the point of it - sorry

They clearly like it, and it is aimed at them, not you!

It isnt aimed at my kids. AFAIK it is aimed at under 3s which my lo's arent!

Yes, it's aimed at younger children. I'm not quite sure what you're saying. It shouldn't be on, because your kids are too old for it? CBeebies is for everyone, not the Yurtchildren!

exactly, the programme is aimed at very young children, not parents. programmes like postman pat, thomas, fireman sam etc, which i would expect ds to really enjoy (vehicle fan) he doesn't look at past the titles. i think this is because they are concentrating on narrative stories with characters which are aimed at the parents and probably the marketing opportunity too. interestingly the only other prog he shows major interest in is brum, also an anne wood production i believe.

We are crazed In the Night Garden fans in my house. Is it really so embarrassing if a child young enough to enjoy it starts saying Makka Pakka in public? It's a little kid! I think it's lovely and brilliant - they said they were aware (the makers) of a lot of anxiety in children's lives and wanted to create a calming place that gave the most anxious kids just a moment every day of being soothed and allowed to relax, and I think it does it perfectly.

Today's was the big breakthrough because the WOTTINGERS were in it. My daughter started screaming and screamed and laughed through the whole episode. This wasn't, I admit, relaxing and soothing, but it was very funny. The Wottingers didn't have to go to bed, though. What's up with them?

I wouldnt let a child of any age, in my care watch it.

I ban it in my house neither I nor the origonal poster have at anytime said it should be removed from cbeebies altogether.

If you want to let your kids watch it thats your choice.

Ooooh, as I posted, saw banner ad link to In The Night Garden toys. Now, that is wicked. I've tabbed it and will go there after writing this and buy Makka Pakkas if I can.

You haven't said why though. I'm genuinely intrigued as to why, in the face of the evidence, you think it is actively harmful.

Sorry to keep making inane comments in the middle of serious discussion - how come the kids have had to do the little boat in their own hands recently? Where are the parents? This is downright irresponsible!

My dd says about everything 'where is der mummy?' or 'Der mummy will come and help dem'
I find it so touching how much she thinks mummies (and sometimes daddies) are the answer to everything in life.

Why?

Because I would prefer to limit the amount of tv my kids watch - becuase I think that "experts" (whoever they may be!!) are right when they say that kids benefit more from socialising, running about, playing games, learning stuff, making things, cooking, gardening, reading, etc etc

Bearing in mind that my kids dont watch much tv (although they probably do watch more than is good for them) I would prefer them to watch progs that genuinely benefit them, that they learn from or that develops their imagination/creativity

Such as -
programmes on planet plant bach - welsh language programmes because we are learning welsh.
number jacks, jackernory, take a bow, blue peter
They love lunar jim, tommy zoom, kipper, sesame street

I am sure you will disagree with me but thats fine cos I do what works for us - And Night Garden, teletubbies and boohbah dont sorry!

Mrs Wood, who trained as a speech therapist before moving into television, producing hits such as Pob's Programme and Rosie and Jim believes the show offers positive values as well as providing entertainment.

"We have created a community of characters who live together, like and respect each other. It was our intention to make it like a beautiful nursery rhyme picture book unfolding a little piece at a time. It is all about atmosphere."

Found this about the show:

"We became very aware of the anxiety surrounding the care of young children which manifested itself in all kind of directions ? but the one big subject that came up again and again was bedtime. It's the classic time for tension between children who want to stay up and parents who want them to go to bed.
"We wanted to explore the difference between being asleep and being awake from a child's point of view: the difference between closing your eyes and pretending to be asleep and closing your eyes and sleeping.
"So this is a programme about calming things down whereas most children's TV is about gee-ing everything up!"
Andrew Davenport continues: "In developing the characters I spent a lot of time thinking about my own childhood. When I was very young I used to stay at my grandmother's house. She would play a game with me about walking round the garden like a teddy bear and we would play it again and again.
"My second main memory was of a book called the Bedtime Book of Nursery Rhymes with a picture of a child on the front sitting in bed with all his toys all around him, reading the same book with a child on the front surrounded by all his toys, reading the same book...
"So I decided to focus in on the idea of nursery rhyme characters because they're classic characters that survive generation to generation, like my grandmother's walking around the garden rhyme with me.
"Nursery rhymes are full of absurd, eccentric characters that are defined by what they do ? like the old woman who lives in a shoe or the cow which jumps over the moon. They're also a compelling part of the shared experience of the silliness of childhood. A child can form pictures in its mind of things that it has never seen ? like a cow jumping over the moon.
"At about two years, a child's imagination begins to take flight as they start to explore the world in imaginative places and with imaginative language play. It's the stage at which they start to discover the power of the imagination.
In The Night Garden is a place of peace and security which is immersed in the complicit silliness of a child's imagination. We've created characters that are toys and have attributes of nursery rhyme characters all living in an absurd, loving community.
"It's like a very detailed and very beautiful picture book."