Sir, may I have the check please? The Reality check.

So today I was asked to babysit my niece for a couple of hours. I agreed, she is family after all, but I think the rate I was paid was crappy. But it was money never the less, even if it was $3 a hour.

Anyway my niece is about 19 months old so she can walk and utter nonsense at a great rate. Plus she has a great set of lungs that are really good at high pitched screams. She is also a spoiled brat that will throw a tantrum at the slightest inconvenience. (Sorry that I that I moved you away from the TV but I want you to have some use of you retinas when you get older.) Unfortunately I was not lucky enough to watch her during a nap time. I was in between the two naps which mean she is the most active and then hits a wall (not literally unless she is too hyped up), starts to nod off and then screams when you try to wake her. Yes this is my lovable niece.


Really it is not that bad most days and today I really did not have to do much. I had to try and feed her some baby food that smells so good that I could eat a gallon of the stuff. (Insert sarcasm)




She is in the "what is this?" stage. She brought me books and would point to things over and over when she was not watching the TV. Let me tell you, I can only say fish, spoon, block, baby, lion, sea lion, tiger, kitty.... so many times over and over until I had to do something to get her attention. Sooo I went through the DVR and found some Micky Mouse Club House episodes. As soon as she saw that mouse, the books were dropped and she went to stare and scream at the screen. Bribery is so easy when they are that young...... It kept her off of the books long enough so that I could go grab a cookie and clean up her toys some. (which were then strewn about the floor again in three seconds flat once she saw what I was doing)

But back to the title of the blog. I watched MMCH for a while and then turned on Little Einsteins...(We're going on a trip.....)

It was there that I discovered how impossible everything that I had seen that day on TV really was. Come on, in the LE episode they were talking to Reindeer, owls and a fox. What are we teaching our children? Yes go up to a fox and try and talk to it, nothing is wrong with that. Oh worst yet, we tell them that animals are dangerous and that we should leave them alone and then low and behold they go home and watch Leo talk and pet a reindeer. A lot of sense that makes to me. Or that you can fly around in a bubble and not get hurt..... There never seems to be any consequences in these shows.

Now I know that it is make believe and that Kids have imaginations, (I was a kid once, I know those times when I use to believe that the floor was lava or that the snow forts had TVs in them.) but that on top of the essay question to the Psych final really got me thinking. (Question was: What affects does TV viewing (15+hours) have on children) Does this kind of stuff really cause kids problems? I guess that I am just looking at it too clinically and should just accept the fact that 99% of kids understand the difference and that make believe is good.

Anyway, I blame this all on the fact that I took Psych and I hope that soon I can look at it and just think "Oh my goddess, this is soooo stupid". (Goddess reference comes from the book that I just got done reading)