Children's TV (From Swindon Advertiser)

Children's TV

6:23pm Saturday 12th September 2009

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By Mum's The Word »

Children’s TV, something that we parents are forced to watch and endure. Actually that is a little unfair; there are a few children’s programmes out there which I actually enjoy, such as Aunty Mabel and Dennis the Menace.

When I look back on my childhood I realise how much it has all changed. Back then there were a couple of hours of children’s television on a weekday and a few hours on a Saturday morning, that was it. Nowadays with the invention of digital, it is on 24 hours a day and there are more channels for kids than I can count.

I am always cautious of how much time my lot spend in front of the TV; the rule is that it doesn’t get turned on unless I am asked first. This week however was their first full week back at school after the summer hols and they were naturally tired, so I have let them watch a little more than I usually do.

My least favourite children’s channel has to be Disney channel. It is full of crass meaningless programmes which bear little reality to my children’s lives. The canned laughter in Zac and Cody is positively irritating and I am sure that this channel brings out the little Diva in both of my two daughters. So it was a relief when my eldest daughter decided that she was bored of this particular channel and opted to watch CBBC instead.

Initially it was all going quite well, she has particularly enjoyed watching the wildlife programmes and learnt a lot of interesting new facts. Have you ever watched any of the Newsround reports on CBBC? I think they are fantastic. Amy is ten and very keen on learning about the world around her. She is often the first person to pick up the Advertiser to report to me what is happening locally. Like all ten year olds she naturally asks a lot of questions and newspapers deal with a lot of difficult issues. I worry about my children trying to get to grips with issues such as violence, racism and mortality.

The CBBC news is obviously designed with children in mind and I feel that it deals brilliantly with a lot of sensitive issues. For example, they recently did a report on donor cards where they interviewed a little boy’s family about his death (he was run over). The whole report was handled sensitively and got across a really important message to children. Naturally I would not single handedly rely on the TV in order to teach my child about such sensitive issues, I felt that it was important that we discussed the report afterwards. If you have a child who is as curious about news as mine, I think that CBBC is a brilliant aid.

I only have one complaint about CBCC and that is with reference to a wacky science programme called “The Gastronuts” which they helpfully decided to show whist I was busy preparing dinner.

“Can we cook without a cooker? The Gastronuts bin their cookers and whip up meals using a hairdryer and a dishwasher?”

So I had my ten year old begging me to let her cook salmon in my dishwasher, No Way! Perhaps this children‘s television isn’t such a good idea after all...

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