I received an interesting email link from both my mom and my husband today regarding the "Baby Einstein Scam". Apparently there are people out there that think that buying these DVD's will actually make your baby smarter. There is a class action against Disney and as a result, they are offering to either refund your purchase or send you out a new DVD or book.
We bought Emersyn a Baby Einstein DVD when she was a couple months old and honestly I wasn't that impressed. I had friends that swore by them and I saw the proof on their babies glazed over eyes as they were hooked on the TV screen. Emersyn just never caught on to it, plus we don't really watch TV much with her.
If you are interested in the refund, CLICK HERE!
Now that Emersyn's car seat is facing the front, she has had the opportunity to enjoy our DVD system that was a total bonus to us when we purchased the van. I definitely don't want Emersyn to become too dependant on TV for entertainment though. There is that whole "children that watch TV under the age of 2 will get ADD" school of thoughts.
Blog mama's: do your kids watch TV? what ages are they? do you think that TV for kids under two is bad?
I would love to hear your thoughts! :)
9 comments:
My daughter is 8 months old and we try not to have the TV on when she's around. I have to admit that I'm one of those people who thinks that TV for young kids, can't be good (and am positive that they aren't missing anything by not watching it).
I have always hated those baby einstein dvds. I have friend's kids who do love them, but they were WAY too slow for Jameson. He does and always has watched some TV for "downtime." I don't mind because he is so active for the rest of the day I need a break. He used to watch Jack's Big Music show on Noggin, and he loved that. Now his very favorite is The Little Einsteins (ironically from the same company as baby Einstein). I keep the TV to a minimum and keep it on Noggin (its commercial free), a DVD or "on-demand." That way he doesn't watch violent shows or commercials. If you are interested in the research of the Baby Einstein read "Nurture Shock" by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. The research was done by UW and showed that kids who watch those DVDs (5 hours a week) are actually behind in their language acquisition (which they were marketed to improve) whereas regular shows even regular cartoons showed no harm.
Chloe still hasn't watched any TV. She has glanced at TVs from time to time when we're out and about though. We ordered some Pimsler French DVDs for her to watch while Reuben's away, but I haven't let her watch them yet. She seems so young to be watching TV. Chloe does enjoy the Baby Einstein books and toys though.
Spencer didn't really like tv when she was little. She liked one music dvd, one episode of the Backyardigans, and one episode of Hip Hop Harry on the Discovery Kids channel- but that's it! Just those three things. It's only been in the last few months that she's started to like other things. I've never thoughht that she'd get smarter from watching a certain show, although since she's starting Sesame Street, she's having a much easier time with her ABC's!
All in all, I I don't really worry about tv, I think as long as there's a happy medium then it can be a good learning tool. Just as long as it doesn't become the babysitter :)
Yep, we watch tv. Probably more than your average home with young children. CJ didn't watch nearly as much as Ella does, but we're one of those families who keeps it on for background noise I suppose. Ella doesn't have much interest in it, she does love Elmo and Blues Clues. We too have a dvd player in the car and it was my saving grace with Ella. It's on every time the kids are in the car to be perfectly honest. Ella has hated the car since Day 1, screaming bloody murder with nothing at all that would help her calm down. I tried everything, and this was my absolute last resort. Well, it worked. She talks now like a happy baby in the car and isn't screaming every time we're in it. And yes, she is in love with baby einstein. we have almost all the dvd's. CJ was a total baby einstein junkie. Guess we're one of those rare, weird families. And I strongly believed it has helped them both in the language department. But to each their own, right?
I agree that t.v. should be limited but Andrew does have his shows that we let him watch. Mainly in the mornings when I'm still getting ready. He didn't watch much t.v. until after about 1. We went to Mexico when he was 17 months and knew that we would need some cartoons to keep him occupied on the VERY long flight. He loves Mickey Mouse and Handy Manny. My doctor did recommend that he not watch t.v. until 2 and then minimal t.v. Like I said, he watched t.v. before 2 and still seems to have big vocabulary!
Oh, my! What a hoot!
We loved the Baby Mozart DVD the best... or maybe it was a Baby Mozart VHS... the DVD may not have been invented yet. The music was just beautiful and soothing... and it was the one thing that if Christopher woke up in the middle of the night would calm him down.
Whoever would think they would make your kiddo any smarter... well, I think they may need to get a little smarter themselves.
we're a no tv family! But... I'll leave my 2 cents out of it ;) haha!
What a good question!
We don't actually have cable, and I have always limited our TV watching with movies, and things like that. When they were toddlers, I think my max was a half hour a day at most. Now we can go weeks with out any movie at all.
We used to have a car with a DVD player in it, (no longer) but my rule for that was that the trip had to be at least two hours or longer to warrant turning it on.
My kids just got used to it, and eventually we found some really fun car activities and games... I think they actually prefer those.
Good luck making this decision. You know what's best for your kiddo.
Sash
(PS so sorry to have been such a bad blog friend lately... With the swine flu all last week we have been playing catch up this week and I just don't have enough computer time.)
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