Every now and then, I like to watch some of the shows that my 8 year-old son likes, he's a big fan of Disney Channel's and he watches almost every regular show on it. I grew up watching Disney's classic films, loving them and learning from them. My all-time favorite movies list includes titles like 'The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Bambie and Beauty and the Beast'. I still watch those movies when I feel I need to reminisce.
On Disney channel, the definition of humor seems to revolve around pranks, disgusting sounds and a small percentage of witty/wordplay jokes. I personally enjoy watching a lot of Disney shows but I always find myself having to tell my son how pranks & disgusting eating/drinking sounds are considered rude and how he shouldn't do them no matter how funny he finds them to be. However I didn't mind him watching whatever he wants to watch. Until a certain show caught my attention.
Fairly Odd Parents is a show about Timmy Turner, a 10 year old boy whose parents seem to always have to leave him with a monstrous baby sitter Vicky and rarely have time for him. Timmy however finds comfort in his 'fairy god parents' who take care of him and grant him wishes no matter how hasty or immature the wishes are. The supposedly 'moral' lesson of the series is that wishes don't always grant your happiness and you may end up in trouble so you can't really rely on magic. But the real message in my opinion is that Timmy has no where to go but his fairy god parents because nobody else pays him any attention, and that magic is all he deals with in his everyday life. In every episode, Timmy's parents ask Vicky to babysit him. Vicky turns his life miserable and, of course, he goes to his god parents for help. In one episode Timmy's father literally tells him: "I only ignored you because I love you" !!!
The show is full of plenty of messages that are wrong on so many levels !
One: Parents won't always be there for you !
Two: Parents don't mind leaving you with anyone no matter how miserable you'll be !
Three: Magic solves all your problems !
Four: You can ALWAYS count on inexistent mythical creatures and/or super natural beings !!!
Five: Ignoring someone is a way of showing love towards them !!!!!
What The Hell??!!
I ended up banning the show, my son is no longer allowed to watch it. I also had to explain why he can't watch the show anymore & how almost every message the show is sending him is wrong. He didn't mind and he now switches the channel on his own whenever the show is on. Now the question is: Why would Disney send these messages into the young brains of children? What would that accomplish?
Why on earth is a kid supposed to unintentionally embrace the fact that his parents are not as reliable as he/she may need them to be? I'm one lucky mother who has the time to watch 80% of what her son watches on TV, while other working mother's don't have that luxury. Why then do we pay for cable channels and trust Disney with our kids mentality and intellect if all we get is wrong manipulated principles in our kids' minds?
Moms and Dads, please be careful what your kids watch .. Don't take anything for granted.
2 comments:
I agree ,along with the annoyingly increasing violent content and the inappropriate language...your kid is lucky to have someone watching after him but others may not be that lucky !
Thank you, I really try hard to keep an eye on whatever content he watches on TV in general, but I don't think Disney is being fair to all the moms who cannot do the same. God bless our children, thanks for your visit :)
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