I recently read the New York Times article regarding the whole Baby Einstein debacle. In case you haven't heard, Disney is offering $15.99 for each Baby Einstein DVD that you return to them. "Why," you ask. Well, you are not going to believe this, but apparently sticking your child in front of a movie as an infant will not make them a genius! WHAT? I know, I know... how the hell are these kids supposed to learn anything?
Seriously, I read that whole article just waiting for the irony to be revealed... it wasn't. It was a deadpan commentary relating how this loon from the 'Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood' (good luck with that endeavor, lady) is basically forcing Disney into this situation with threat of a class action lawsuit (lord knows she could never find dozens/hundreds/thousands of people to take part in a frivolous lawsuit). Luckily for Disney they are a gazillion dollar company so this won't hurt too bad. I continued to read about the issue on other websites and blogs where (seemingly intelligent) people were all up in arms over these products.
Are you freaking kidding me??? There are parents out there that want to honestly admit that they believed these videos were going to make their children smarter? You should probably be more concerned with the IQ that you handed down in the gene pool.
I have many of these videos here at my house. We started back in 2000 when we had Ariana. Let me assure you that Colby and I did not stand in the video aisle contemplating which DVD was going to turn our new baby into the next Einstein. We just wanted something to grab her attention for 15 minutes so that we might eat dinner together quietly or so that I could have a phone call without a wailing infant. Of course I know that it said 'educational' and has the name Einstein in it, but I also had educated myself enough to know that putting babies in front of a TV will affect their future attention capacity. I also knew that the best way to teach them was to get on their level... communicate... talk constantly about everything... play... interact... you know, all that crazy stuff. Am I alone here? Am I in the minority for thinking these parents are ridiculous for expected something so grand from a freaking TV screen? I would certainly not cast stones regarding using the TV to entertain your kids... but that's just it... entertain.
If we need to anticipate companies to pay back for products not doing what we expected, I have a house full of kitchen utensils that did not make cooking easier. (I have decided that only a personal shopper, a chef and a maid will do that.) I also have lots of diet books and fitness videos that certainly did not do the trick. And those Baby Einstein videos did not make my babies geniuses, damn it!
Come on, people... parent your children already! I am not even going to link to the refund site on here because I am so astounded an the lunacy. If you want to make a quick buck in this crappy economy, that's one thing... eh, whatever. But if you are a parent that, in good conscience, want to be paid for your poor judgement in in educating your children... Here's your sign!
My oldest daughter showed absolutely no interest in Baby Einstein videos until she was almost three years old - in fact, television and videos were simply not interesting to her. I actually had friends (very smart women, mind you) that mentioned that it was too bad that she wasn't learning all the amazing things that their kids were learning from Baby Einstein videos.... It's messed up when you feel like your kid might be falling behind because she doesn't like television....
ReplyDelete(BTW, she now LOVES television - movies, PBS kids, Disney channel, ND and Patriots football, you name it!).
My daughter has those for her twins, but she just uses them so she has time to take a shower----and she has to do it quickly, too!! It was the only thing that captured their attention....
ReplyDeleteBut now they are into Barbie Dream Castle----so go figure!
Uh - you won't catch me returning my videos. Hello? That's my snuggle time with my little guy. He loves them and then I get to take a break, sit, and snuggle with my otherwise super energetic little man. No way. The "value" to me is more than the $15.95... and someone thought that this was going to make his kid an Einstein - ridiculous!
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