Children's Programming

Now that the redheads are finally interested in television, if only for a few minutes at a time, I’ve had the opportunity to watch some of the children’s programs lately. They still love Barney but at least they are watching different shows now too. Thank goodness.

I’ve noticed that lots of the programs incorporate Hispanics into the show, many by using Hispanic main characters such as Handy Manny and Dragon Tales. And Barney has included Spanish speaking songs since the beginning.

Disney has the toddler programs on in the mornings but then it changes to tween shows around late morning so then our only choice is Sprout. If us adults are watching something the girls will start saying “Sprout, Sprout”, wanting us to turn there. Hopefully there’s a new television for their room in the near future.

I haven’t figured out yet why Nena, the host for Sprout, wears the exact same clothes day after day after day. Does this make her more familiar to the children? I change clothes daily and my grandbabies still recognize me. It drives me crazy.

Then there’s Caillou. What kind of name is that anyway? His sister, Rosie, has a normal name. And why is he bald when none of his friends are?

Why do some of the mice in Angelina Ballerina wears clothes and some do not?

And many of the Sprout shows have characters with British accents. I kinda like Kipper. Kipper the dog. The dog with the slipper. Kipper the dog. But I don’t like it when that song gets stuck in my head.

Noddy is this strange little boy that lives in Toyland or something like that. They have some strange and scary characters in that show.

And I’m sorry, but Thomas is just downright boring.

I think all of the Sprout shows are “safe” for the children to watch. They just do a lot of repeats. I’ve seen Caillou break his mother’s favorite mug about six times in the past couple of weeks.

I can remember growing up the ONLY time we got to watch cartoons was on Saturday morning. We always looked forward to that day. Later, Sesame Street, Electric Company and Mister Rogers came out on PBS but it took us a while to get a UHF antennae. I didn’t get to watch much of those.

And I know, we shouldn’t let the redheads watch TOO much television. But it sure can make a good babysitter.