I will freely admit that we all tend to watch a bit too much TV around the House of Crunch.
I grew up with our 3 little Brit channels and watched kids shows as well as whatever mom was watching before 9 pm.
We also went to the movies a lot too.
My kids will watch TV with me and their own shows too. So this means they get a mix of Food, Home and Garden and Science tossed in with the odd prime time drama and do not talk during Lost or Stargate Universe thank you very much. Then they watch Teletoon and the dreck that Disney churns out on the Family Channel.
I enjoy watching the edumacational stuff with them. We have fun talking about all that we see. From space, nature to the crazy Mythbuster guys….we all enjoy it.
Caity also has very firm opinions on fashion, and home decor.
She also dislikes any of the cop style shows out there.
But what seems to totally bamboozle them are the ads.
Where I zone out and don’t pay attention…..advertising sucks in the minds of the young and impressionable.
Whereas they KNOW at TV show, cartoon or movie is not real…..advertising is too confusing for them to sort out.
If they say we need a ‘Slap Chop,’ Caitlyn feels that they really mean it.
She worried about the sad salt shaker. She was upset at the rejection of the duster for the Swiffer counterpart.
She is 5. She is almost 6. This then seems to be the age that these 30 second jolts of TOO MUCH INFORMATION is geared at.
How confusing must ads for Viagra be then? She doesn’t get why this woman called ‘mother nature’ is worried about monthly ‘gifts’ when in other ads she is shilling vegetable juice or getting cars of the road.
She is convinced every hair colour product MUST be right for me. As are the weight loss programs.
Her brain SOAKS up the information in advertising.
Advertising is really what catches them young. Develops them early into the consumer culture mindset……feeds them the idea that buy buy buy because we say so is the way to go.
Advertising, not the shows is what is the big influencer. The big cultural developer. The hive mind of shop, buy, diet, worry about looks, image and be like the rest of us all comes from the advertising.
Ads are telling our children stuff they don’t need to know or at least should be learning from us…not from a PR f irm.
Needless to say, I spend a great deal of time explaining the concept of retail, and marketing and why people say we need their product and so on.
Children need to learn who and what to listen to at an early age.
Peer pressure now comes in many insidious forms.
Keeping our kids ready and able to comprehend the complicated world we live in is crucial.
It is very hard to protect them from the ‘evils’ of our society.
As soon as they are out in the big wide world, they are exposed to a variety of morals, ethics and differing views and ideas .
I figure my job is to make sure they are comfortable with their own world views and that they won’t be easily swayed by what bombards them every single day.
Once again, it all boils down to keeping the lines of communication open. Making sure that they know they can discuss ANYTHING they see and hear with me at any time.
So far, this mostly seems to be working.
I have uber confident kids. I do however, see from time to time, worry and confusion about what other kids have said or done, things in the news and those sneaky sneaky ads that yell their message to them between their favorite shows.
It is a sad scary world.
I hate seeing innocence being eroded by the need to keep them wise….that protection comes with a cost.
I hate that.
Scatteredmom says
I’ve been reading “Chew On This”, and there’s a chapter on advertising that weirded me out. If Jake was little I’d probably never let him watch TV again, lol!
harrietglynn says
Well you can’t shelter your kids from TV and the Internet. But like you said, you can ask questions, pay attention and listen.
.-= harrietglynn´s last blog ..Geek Speak interview =-.
Texan Mama says
Yep. We have a channel here in TX called “qubo” (pronounced cue- bow”) It has all good shows on it, but my kids get sucked into the ads for Pancake Puff Pan (bought it), Perfect Brownie Pan (bought that one too), and Pillow Pets (I’m being worn thin on that one). My kids sometimes get confused about why in the world would an advertiser LIE to them???
.-= Texan Mama´s last blog ..Pride =-.
mo-wo says
The schools are consistently getting the message now that media literacy is important to cover with kids… But I want to see at kindergarten not Grade 8. We have always taught our kids “that’s just advertising” but it is a constant battle. Parents, teachers and whole cities have to be thinking this stuff over and acting.
Thanks for acting on this one. Its important.
.-= mo-wo´s last blog ..The end of assvice =-.
Amber says
The ads really are the first thing that appeals to kids. I think it’s because they’re designed to be catchy and attractive to those with short attention spans. It drives me bonkers, really. And it drives me even MORE bonkers when the advertising is obviously geared towards kids.
I agree that we need to educate our children, and talk with them about advertising. But I also wish that advertising weren’t directed so blatantly at children. They are young, and it takes time for them to decipher the media messages they’re exposed to.
.-= Amber´s last blog ..19 Years On =-.
Marilyn (A Lot of Loves) says
My son only recently saw a regular TV channel (meaning one with ads on it instead of TreeHouse). He didn’t like the commercials. He kept demanding that I turn off the “grown up show”. It actually made me pretty happy to hear that.
.-= Marilyn (A Lot of Loves)´s last blog ..What I Learned: April 2010 =-.
Carrie says
THis is why I’m glad my kids are happy watching Treehouse with no commercials (essentially) or begging me to put in Toy Story or Mary Poppins or Bambi etc etc etc for the millionth time.
However, while commercials might not be getting my daughter, her peers are. Every day I get “I really wish I had an iPod” Good Lord, she isn’t even FOUR yet!! (at least the mother of the kid who does have an iPod apologized to me for corrupting my baby :op)
.-= Carrie´s last blog ..Remembering 7 years ago… =-.
cheesefairy says
Poor thing, worried about the sad salt shaker.
I almost always watch recorded TV so I never see ads anymore. If I do see ads, I feel that jolt of “what the hell!” that the kids must feel…I feel compelled to watch, just to see what crazy thing they’re going to do.
And yeah, whatever my kids watch is prerecorded Treehouse..but I still get the “wow! Mom look! HOLIDAY BARBIE!” because they’re just picking up on the general tone of excitement in the announcer’s voice. It is frightening. I figure if they can remember (at 2 yrs old!) “go to treehousetvdotcom” they can remember me saying “commercials are not real and they are made by people who want your money.”
..which is to say, my money.
.-= cheesefairy´s last blog ..Words: You’re Doing Them Wrong =-.
geekymummy says
I honestly believe kids should not see advertising. Young children are not able to understand it. I sincerely miss the UK, where advertising during childrens programming is not allowed. I think it is a serious contributor to childhood obesity and type II diabetes (most kids show advertising is for food).
My kids are only 2 and 4 and I only let them watch DVD’s (our lack of cable TV makes this easy). I don;t want to be that weird family who doesn;t watch TV, but I really hate the way advertising is forced down our kids throats in the country.
Thanks for letting me get that off my chest!
.-= geekymummy´s last blog ..Beauty in the ordinary =-.
CynthiaCrumb says
Surprisingly, we’ve been watching less and less telly as time goes on. I’m not sure why that’s happening because we’re not anti-television, but lately I find that there might be a few hours of TVO Kids or Kids CBC in the morning, but when the screen’s on at home, it’s more than likely to be a movie.
But it’s amazing when the kids do get access to real commercials how much explaining it takes. My oldest has a reasonable grasp of what advertising is and what they’re trying to get you to do, but she can still get sucked in like the rest of us.
Now I find we spend more time playing Wii together as a family or doing something on the computer together. At first it seemed really tough to wean off tv but now it doesn’t even phase us.
Great post. Good things to be conscious of.
.-= CynthiaCrumb´s last blog ..Muffins are for kids, too =-.
Kate (This Mom) says
I am a big TV-lover, so it’s no surprise that my four year old is as well. (Can’t get the two year old to sit long enough to watch anything, which I’m sure most people would consider a good thing.)
We’ve been sticking with DVD’s (and my old Disney VHS’s) as well as Treehouse, where there is little advertising. My daughter gets so confused when watching a regular network and commercials come on — “What happened to the show?” and you can already see the psychology at work behind kids’ commercials as she gets sucked right in.
I’m a teacher, and even with Grade 3’s I do a lot of work on what advertising is (and that someone is PAYING for the commercial to be on so that they can convince you to BUY their product)…but I think it’s time to start explaining it a bit to my own child.
LindsayDianne says
I HATE the tv.
For starters, when I was a kid I had a friend who was raised by the television. When we started getting more social I would call yo invite her out on a Monday and she couldn’t because it was Ally McBeal night. She couldn’t on Thursday because it was Survivor night.
Right off the bat this seemed really stupid to me. Effectively opting out of life experiences to watch experiences romanticized in a way that’s not at all indicative of what life is actually like.
And as I got older, it just turns out that my attention span is not something that is kept by television shows or movies. I do like Disney movies, and the occasional show will get my attention, but I only last about 15 minutes before I start feeling that there are so many other things I could be doing.
We don’t have cable- we download anything we want to watch. Our daughter didn’t know what McDonald’s was until she was almost three. I feel that by controlling what is accessible through the television, I’ve also managed to control the kinds of things that she’s exposed to. There are still hundreds of thousands of advertisements beamed into her head on buses, on magazines, on billboards, in the mall…. But while I can’t control those things I am confident that the number of ads a child sees when they have cablevision in the home is significantly higher than the number of ads a child would see in a home without it.
And it saves money, to boot.
sleeping mask says
Super-Duper site! I am adoring it!! Will come back again – taking you feeds also, Appreciation.