When it comes to media and kids, it doesn’t matter: whatever we parents are doing, it’s wrong.

If you opt in to letting your little ones watch TV — thinking they might learn something — you’re a total boob. Recall the Baby Einstein/Baby Mozart DVDs and what people said about parents who bought those.

If you decide to give pediatric recommendations of no TV before age 2 a whirl, you’re being a snob, not living in reality, clearly a martyr who doesn’t value showers, quiet phone calls or even 20 minutes of “me time.” Whatever your house rules are, they’re an implicit criticism of how some other family is doing it. Continue reading »

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It started out innocently enough.  A few years ago, I watched a couple of hours of Disney Channel programming to make sure that what my kid was watching was appropriate.  You know,  “Suite Life,” “Hannah Montana” and all those other silly shows they love so much. I didn’t particularly enjoy them, but as a parent it is my responsibility to know what she’s watching, right?

But then, Nickelodeon got in on the act.   I sat down to watch “iCarly” and something happened.  I stopped rolling my eyes and started actually enjoying the show.   It was well-written and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny.  That’s when I realized that tween TV had changed. Continue reading »

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Many parents choose home-based day care over larger day care centers because they feel it offers a more personal experience for their child.  But according to a new study out of the University of Washington, the home-based day care experience might be a little too much like home for some kids.  In much the same way parents sometimes use television as an electronic babysitter, the study found that a surprising number of home-based day care centers do, too.  Continue reading »

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Earlier this spring, Nickelodeon started airing promos for a band called the Jumparounds, which featured a quartet of cute young people singing and dancing away to upbeat perky songs. I wrote a post about it that was less than enthusiastic and got more hits than any post I have ever written. Most of those were along the lines of “We love them! If you don’t like it, don’t watch!!”

Well, Kiki, Marina, Twist, and Shout (the names of the four characters) faded away and Nickelodeon wasn’t promoting the show anymore, nor did it show up on their summertime schedule. About a month ago, though, the videos retuned, but the crew had a new name – the Fresh Beat Band – and their half hour show premiered on Nick last week.

The nice people at Nickelodeon sent me a screener, and I’ll say this: Continue reading »

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There will be no pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. After 26 years, a Peabody Award and 26 Emmys, the pages of the hit PBS show Reading Rainbow will slammed shut.  This Friday the contract for the show will expire on the weekly airing of the show will be no more. Hosted and produced by Le Var Burton, the show aimed at kids age 4 to 8 will be longer be available on PBS since they opted not to renew the contract.

The show had actually ceased production in 2006, when the funding had run out, but it continued to air on local PBS stations across the land until now. The show itself, with it’s honoring of children’s literature,  will be missed but one thing that won’t be? That theme song which after I’d hear it once, would be stuck in my mind for the remainder of the day.

Wanna get it stuck in your head too? Check out this ode to the theme song from Rhett and Link here: Continue reading »

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This just proves that TV is not totally evil. A 9-year-old boy – while on a weekend hiking trip with his family – accidently got separated from his kin. Luckily, young Grayson Wynne watches the Discovery Channel’s “Man vs. Wild” and used the knowledge garnered from this wilderness survival show to survive himself while being lost overnight.

Every week Grayson, his brothers and his dad watch Continue reading »

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