What is *Appropriate* Television For a Child?

Ok, I admit it. I am not a fan of the big purple dinosaur, but singing and dancing are one of HistoryBoy's favorite things (remember Calming with Music), so a small amount of Barney was in my television diet. I have to admit. I LOVE PBS. I loved Sesame Street as a child and was delighted when HistoryBoy took to Cookie Monster and Grover just like I did, even if Mr. Snuffalupagus wasn't Big Bird's imaginary friend anymore.

I kept HistoryBoy away from anything that had a child who was mouthy or whiny. Ok fail here for PBS for whiny Caillou but that is only one fail among all the other GREAT programming and NO I do not work for a PBS affilliate, LOL. I just want to be able to sit and not have to worry that my child is going to inundated with brats. No Rugrats! Or tv shows that encourage my addictive child to "Collect them all" ie Pokemon. He also loved Zaboomafoo, the Kratt brothers do a great job teaching kids about animals and animal safety.

I will admit that I was a fan of *some* Nick Jr programs. Blues Clues was great (to a point..there is a future blog coming about this) And I could stand minimal Dora and Diego. I did keep him away from Nick shows like Jimmy Neutron, I just didn't like the way the kids talked to each other, especially Shelley and Jimmy. Also, Sponge Bob, I did not need him imitating the idiotic nonsense on there. I probably sound like the TV nazi now.

Maybe this is how our TV education broadened from PBS into Animal Planet and then into History Channel and so forth, because I was not against him watching these programs. They were educational and expanded his mind rather than numbed it. I don't think that makes me a bad mom.

I will say that for a little while his favorite TV show was CSI. I know it is not a kid's show but he loved knowing what kinds of poisons did this or that to a person. He would look them up on the internet. Thank goodness than neither myself or my husband turned up deceased or it would have looked suspicious to have poisons being researched on the computer on a regular basis. Thankfully it was a short-lived interest and both my husband and I lived through it. LOL.

Feel free to leave a comment or email me at teenahope@gmail.com