I was able to get my kid into Studio Ghibli's younger-oriented fare, so he's seen Kiki's Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro many, many times. (The dubbing on these is slightly annoying, but at least the pictures are pretty).
The old Peter Rabbit cartoons are nice!
NumberBlocks is educational so I'm okay with that and often I can put him off with just turning on the music and not the show. My son has become obsessed with math and asking me repetitive questions like "What's two twos? What's two threes? What's two fours?" so I recite endless math facts for him.
I swore I'd never show my kids Barney and then my mom showed up with some tapes she bought at a garage sale. Thanks Mom! (My kids are in their early 20s). My son loved Thomas the Tank Engine toys, so we gladly accepted some hand me down videos (DVRs became popular when they were young, so we had both tapes and DVDs). They were stop motion, from what I recall, and I think a few were narrated by Ringo Starr? Anyway, they were creepy and we gave them away quickly.
I didn't realize Caillou was still a thing, we hated him back in the day as well!
I love the Little Bear mention! This is my two year old's favorite show right now. I think you're spot on that a calming vibe is the #1 thing for parents.
Another standby in our house is the classic Teletubbies from the 90s. Again it's calm, and mostly just shows kids being kids-even the Teletubbies themselves are just giant toddlers.
Instead of Caillou, what is your favorite thing to come out of Canada? I will go first! When it is music, it is Céline Dion or Drake, but when it is acting, it is Jim Carrey or Ryan Gosling!
Bluey is a lot of fun, but given the fanbase’s snobbery (exemplified here) I’m going to stick with naming it “Bougie” instead.
We were told when our child was 2 and still wasn’t speaking that we should watch CoCoMelon with him. We tried a lot of things, so I can’t say that was what worked per se, but if it’s so bad why were pediatric speech therapists recommending it?
It’s funny, the cloying nature of a CoCoMelon gets this huge negative reaction, but Daniel Tiger doesn’t? Give me something like Trash Truck on Netflix: also gentle, but shows rather than explains. Public Service Announcements should be between episodes, not the whole damn show.
Our son is currently on a Polly Pockets kick, which seems pretty wise to the tropes of “adventurous kid” stories (there’s an annoyed old man neighbor, who I think gets some dignity back at the end of the episode, etc), and in a movie length episode there’s a unicorn announcer who’s a throwback to the awesomely-confident-to-the-point-of-vain “fairies” of ‘70s game shows, Charles Nelson Reilly and Paul Lynde.
Look, I would live my child to watch Roosevelt Franklin (I’m *old school*), Electric Company, and Merrie Melodies (or at least Animaniacs and Tiny Toons), but if that’s not what he wants to watch then that’s OK, he has agency!
Octonauts is a really solid show aside from the annoying Creature Report song that they do at the end of the episode. The educational content is nice, but the thing I appreciate the most is their approach to problem solving and learning from mistakes.
Gabby's Dollhouse has too little educational content for my tastes, but it has some good characters. Both my wife and I find it too cutesy, and there's always a kazoo playing somewhere. My wife hates it when I inevitably start singing along to the Sprinkle Party song.
NumberBlocks is meh but my kid loves it and has learned an absolutely bananas amount of math facts.
Early Sesame Street is excellent. I'm hoping to introduce her to some more PBS shows as she gets older.
Adding one more to the banned list that hasn't been mentioned already: "Spirit" (horse girl show) is banned for catty behavior. Every time I actually listen to the show, someone is acting like a #!&@% to someone else for some stupid reason. I will not abide it in my house.
I have no opinion about Paw Patrol. I know that my daughter has watched it at other kids' houses, but she hasn't asked for it at home.
PW Patrol is loathed and banned. We learned to do this from PP DvDs we bought. (We don’t choose to have broadcast/cable TV in our house. Are we weird that way? Very well then, we are weird that way.)
There are so many things wrong with this police stare propaganda… too many to list here.
I was able to get my kid into Studio Ghibli's younger-oriented fare, so he's seen Kiki's Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro many, many times. (The dubbing on these is slightly annoying, but at least the pictures are pretty).
The old Peter Rabbit cartoons are nice!
NumberBlocks is educational so I'm okay with that and often I can put him off with just turning on the music and not the show. My son has become obsessed with math and asking me repetitive questions like "What's two twos? What's two threes? What's two fours?" so I recite endless math facts for him.
I swore I'd never show my kids Barney and then my mom showed up with some tapes she bought at a garage sale. Thanks Mom! (My kids are in their early 20s). My son loved Thomas the Tank Engine toys, so we gladly accepted some hand me down videos (DVRs became popular when they were young, so we had both tapes and DVDs). They were stop motion, from what I recall, and I think a few were narrated by Ringo Starr? Anyway, they were creepy and we gave them away quickly.
I didn't realize Caillou was still a thing, we hated him back in the day as well!
I love the Little Bear mention! This is my two year old's favorite show right now. I think you're spot on that a calming vibe is the #1 thing for parents.
Another standby in our house is the classic Teletubbies from the 90s. Again it's calm, and mostly just shows kids being kids-even the Teletubbies themselves are just giant toddlers.
i am not a parent, but i do get irritated often when i watch kids of my house matching absolute shit on TV and on their phones
Instead of Caillou, what is your favorite thing to come out of Canada? I will go first! When it is music, it is Céline Dion or Drake, but when it is acting, it is Jim Carrey or Ryan Gosling!
All my kids (12 year age range) have loved Wild Kratts! They also know way more about animals than I ever learned.
Bluey, Octonauts & My Neighbor Totero also top our list. Everyone in the family can enjoy these shows together.
These parents missed the really wholesome stuff. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5dwbdf
Bluey is a lot of fun, but given the fanbase’s snobbery (exemplified here) I’m going to stick with naming it “Bougie” instead.
We were told when our child was 2 and still wasn’t speaking that we should watch CoCoMelon with him. We tried a lot of things, so I can’t say that was what worked per se, but if it’s so bad why were pediatric speech therapists recommending it?
It’s funny, the cloying nature of a CoCoMelon gets this huge negative reaction, but Daniel Tiger doesn’t? Give me something like Trash Truck on Netflix: also gentle, but shows rather than explains. Public Service Announcements should be between episodes, not the whole damn show.
Our son is currently on a Polly Pockets kick, which seems pretty wise to the tropes of “adventurous kid” stories (there’s an annoyed old man neighbor, who I think gets some dignity back at the end of the episode, etc), and in a movie length episode there’s a unicorn announcer who’s a throwback to the awesomely-confident-to-the-point-of-vain “fairies” of ‘70s game shows, Charles Nelson Reilly and Paul Lynde.
Look, I would live my child to watch Roosevelt Franklin (I’m *old school*), Electric Company, and Merrie Melodies (or at least Animaniacs and Tiny Toons), but if that’s not what he wants to watch then that’s OK, he has agency!
The inclusion of Thomas the Tank Engine on the "good" list makes the judgement of those parents pretty suspect, I'd say.
Would add: Dora the Explorer ("backpack coming to the rescue"), Barney, and Teletubbies.
I have a 4-year-old daughter.
Octonauts is a really solid show aside from the annoying Creature Report song that they do at the end of the episode. The educational content is nice, but the thing I appreciate the most is their approach to problem solving and learning from mistakes.
Gabby's Dollhouse has too little educational content for my tastes, but it has some good characters. Both my wife and I find it too cutesy, and there's always a kazoo playing somewhere. My wife hates it when I inevitably start singing along to the Sprinkle Party song.
NumberBlocks is meh but my kid loves it and has learned an absolutely bananas amount of math facts.
Early Sesame Street is excellent. I'm hoping to introduce her to some more PBS shows as she gets older.
Adding one more to the banned list that hasn't been mentioned already: "Spirit" (horse girl show) is banned for catty behavior. Every time I actually listen to the show, someone is acting like a #!&@% to someone else for some stupid reason. I will not abide it in my house.
I have no opinion about Paw Patrol. I know that my daughter has watched it at other kids' houses, but she hasn't asked for it at home.
PW Patrol is loathed and banned. We learned to do this from PP DvDs we bought. (We don’t choose to have broadcast/cable TV in our house. Are we weird that way? Very well then, we are weird that way.)
There are so many things wrong with this police stare propaganda… too many to list here.
Sometimes its nice to see that people have similar concerns to mine https://www.reddit.com/r/HBOMAX/comments/wubv00/can_i_block_specific_titles_on_child_profile_with/
Griźzy and the Lemmings is the most mind numbing and inane children's show with no redeeming value.