My sister in law would put her kids in front of these things. My wife and I wouldn't even consider it. I gave my brother a copy of the article so he can give his wife a bad time. T.V. isn't good for adults let alone developing children. If I wasn't so addicted I'd get rid of the darn thing myself.

rayb wrote:

---

 I opined that these vids were horrible for babies, and that any parent that planted their kid in front of the boobtoob with the idea they were gonna make their child "smarter" was a moronic rube.

Turns out now science is catching up to my Dumbledoresque brain...

--Ray

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If you put it that way, I juts don't see how they had any room to be offended.

FWIW I tend to agree. TV is TV, when they're babies. Besides that, the dang things are SO expensive, it just had to be a gimmick.

 

I mean, you'd think they'd appreciate it when I tell them their children are gonna end up horrible people if they don't live up to my imaginary standards!?
Ray, you should have put it in a kinder way. For instance, if you had said that the kids would end up horrible people like they are, then they probably would have taken it better. Everyone wants their kids to be like them.

Yay! I thought the baby einstein vids were lame-o!! (The ones I checked out at the library, that is.) They're like... soooo...... sllllloooooowwww...... Can't stand it! Even the music is cheesy. Sure, technically it's Mozart, but good grief. Let them listen to real stringed instruments and stuff... maybe even a whole orchestra!

I think Sesame Street is far better.

Except when Dr. Ruth is on...

Yeah there's something not right about a sex therapist on a kids' show.

Many researchers in child development advocate no TV before age two, and then in very limited amounts (no more than 30 min) until age five, and that TV time should be educational programming, commercial-free, and watched with a parent as much as possible.

We don't strictly adhere to that at the Roper house--we don't have a TV, but sometimes we pop in a Bob the Builder or Sesame Street DVD for an hour for the kids just to get a break and keep our sanity.

-- Edited by Roper at 19:58, 2007-08-08

What the! My kids love Baby Einstein! And you all know what geniuses my kids are. That research must be whacko. Classical Baby is fun too (and it's real instruments instead of music box music).

Wait 5 minutes? What? How can you wait 5 minutes when you're making up lyrics to Mozart's "Little Rondo"??

That would be Gypsy Rondo and it was by Haydn, last I checked. See how Baby Einstein screws with you??


OH... I'm gonna have to kick yer little hiney butt
Cuz you know those vids are making kids into big nuts
Da da duh-duh Da da duh-duh Da da duh-duh Da da duh-duh
I threw em out and felt real good inside my gut.

Your kid would beat up my kid...


...but then that'd be because they learned violence by watching too much teevee, has parents that have screwed up priorities and set a bad example for their children, and the child is socially immature, eats refined sugar, and has been overly feminized, to boot!

Hmm... I've never heard the Rondo alla turca called the "Little Rondo"...

But as ray pointed out in another thread, it is not the intellectualization that will save you, it's the DOING. And... since bok's in the mood for a showdown... Shall we see who actually PLAYS the piece with the most accuracy? Or perhaps you're confident in that, so we could move on and add tempo in to the mix? Let me check something... yes, according to the date in my old piano book, I learned this when I was 11. Too bad I'm not as good as I was back then... But, I'll give you a run for it, if you think you can stand the heat.

Hey! Maybe if we have a bountiful reunion, we could play this variation of it for the people--

WOW...

BRING IT ON.

And my piano may not be played on a daily basis, but there are no sticky marks on it. You amateur.

Mozart, Bach... but can he identify a piece as one or the other that he has never heard before? Now THAT would be uber-coolness. It sounds like Bountiful might have the edge on genius babies here... I think it's some sort of sign.

What? I'm disappointed, Roper. Your children didn't do that in the womb?

--Ray

There are sticky marks needing cleaning off my piano every day. Because my genius children are more into practicing their skillz than in washing their hands.

So...you're saying you're the cleanliness girl...and I'm...

I think I prefered "evil baby."

followup link... Disney apparently wants a retraction from the press release... could hurt business...

http://www.komotv.com/news/local/9199417.html

--Ray

Okay, well here is the real question back to the original topic (kind of along Arbi's comment)...

Even if there is some sort of correlation that can be proven between kids watching these shows and a delay in development of speech and use of a fantabulous vocabulary at a young age, does that really mean that the child is "dumbed down" to the point they become not smart, as in dumb, as in intellectually deficient, as in unintelligent?

I think that is what it is implying, and I would have to say there is absolutely no way a study could be conducted to prove that, because that would require establishing a baseline for every single child put in the study to compare against... kind of a before / un-babyeinsteined version and an after / babyeinsteined version.

There are simply too many other factors involved in child development than to say "if only we didn't have this the child would be so much brighter and advanced and wonderful".

Well, I guess that means that Cat and I are dumbing down our kids, because our 2 year old is addicted to Baby Einstein (and I do mean addicted) and she is speech delayed.
Of course the older ones are so sick of Baby Einstein they are about to go crazy.
I prefer to think that she is a genius in the making. Isn't it true that Einstein didn't talk until he was 4?
However, I am not convinced in any way whatsoever that our child is speech delayed because of baby Einstein. I mean, come on get real. There are tons of kids out there that have language delays and other types of delays that have never set their eyes on one of those Baby Einstein videos.
We use the videos to babysit our kids and doggonit, we're proud of it! You young parents are just still too idealistic. Either that you have way too much time on your hands and need at least 3 or 4 more kids.
No, actually I would prefer the kid didn't watch it so much. But, she knows how to unlock the DVD cabinet, knows where the DVD's she wants are at and knows which channel the TV needs to be on to watch a DVD and has everything all set up ahead of time and brings the one she has chosen to us.
If the kid could reach the DVD player she would probably pop it in herself. Oh, and if we say no then she goes to one of her siblings to try and put it in for her. She also knows if we happen to replace the one she has chosen with another (because we may be sick of the one she's chosen) and let's us know about it.
Her latest favorite is "Meet the Orchestra." And, when they have featured the violin I have seen her run over and try to get my violin out of its case.

Now, tell me does that sound like a child who has been dumbed down? I think not. However, my kids watch WAY too much t.v. in general, which we are trying to limit. I do think there is a problem with kids watching too much t.v. and it shunting their mental process.

BTW, we do not believe in VeggieTales or Living Scriptures videos in our household. The reason why we don't like Living Scriptures is because they cartoonize scripture stories. If we tell kids that cartoons are not real and are make believe, how are they going to understand that the Living Scripture videos are based on real events?

-- Edited by Poncho29 at 20:32, 2007-08-19