Watching Your Kids Watch Cartoons
| September 22, 2011 | Posted by admin under Home Management, Parenting |
Watching animated movies and cartoon shows is part of our everyday routine. My girls love Spongebob Squarepants and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. As for the movies, some of their favorites are Rio, Toy Story 3, UP, Tangled, and Finding Nemo. I myself enjoy watching movies with them. However, let me remind you mommies that even when it is tempting to let your kids watch cartoons and animated movies all the time, WE SHOULDN’T – and even when it is generally safe to let them face the TV screen for a few hours every day; we SHOULDN’T let them watch kid-friendly TV shows and movies on their own. We should watch our kids when they watch cartoons.
Why? because there are little things – certain scenes, some lines, certain behaviors of the characters – that may influence our kid’s behavior in a negative way. Let me take for example, my 2 y/o Yana. After watching Tangled, she started writing and coloring our walls. Before, I thought it was just part of her experimentation and that she just got tired of coloring her books. However, I soon realized that she was just trying to imitate Rapunzel because when I told her NOT to color the walls again, she told me that the “princess” (she was referring to Rapunzel) should color the walls.
Let me give you more examples. After Yana watched RIO, she learned how to spit simply because Jewel (the female bird in the movie) did so. After watching Despicable Me, she learned to say “Kick your butt”. I didn’t expect that my daughter could immediately adopt these random things from the movies she watched but she did, and now I’ve learned my lesson – that moms should pay attention to everything – every little detail with what we let our kids watch and as our kids watch movies with us, we should tell them right away what’s bad and what’s wrong from what they are watching.
Let me point out however that watching family-oriented animated movies are not wrong – and they can also teach our children positive values and traits. For example, my girls started to care more for their toys after watching Toy Story. Watching Finding Nemo, UP, and RIO also made them more interested in animals and pets. I’ve also heard news about a girl who saved the life of her classmate through the Heimlich Maneuver which she learned from Spongebob Squarepants. So what I’m saying is that we can let our kids watch cartoons BUT we should make sure that we guide them through as they watch the shows and that we need to MODERATE their TV and movie watching hours.
I have to completely agree with you on that. My kids always loved imitating what they watched on TV when they were little. I had to keep explaining to them what’s right and wrong.
I think that the older they grow, the easier it gets. They start to understand the difference between fantasy and reality and get wiser.
Nowadays I have seen that my boys have the skill of analyzing things deeply and I think it’s from all of the years that I would sit down with them and discuss what they were watching on TV.
Great points here!
All the best,
Eren
Eren Mckay recently posted..Noahs Ark Baby Shower