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If you have a child that watches the Disney Channel, I recommend you sit down one day and watch some of their favorite shows with them. I was off work on a sick day on Friday, and I decided to do exactly that. And I was less than thrilled, to say the least.
Never in my life have I seen destruction of property and disrespect to adults so heavily encouraged and idolized. There was one show that practically consisted entirely of making fun of parents. Children that are under 15 have free reign of their homes, and pratically no parental guidance and control is seen. When they do make a rare appearance, the parents are often portrayed as 'the bad guy' or stupid, ignorant and clumsy. When a child makes a sarcastic or rude remark to their parents, they are met with roaring laughter from the crowds. Personally, I think its really uncalled for.
One of the things kids need to learn about is how to tell the difference between real life and television, including how to act. Are your children copying what they see and hear on tv? If not then you know they have learned this. If they are, then talk to them about it. If it really bugs you then get rid of the tv. It won't stop them from seeing that stuff but it will limit their exposure if you think it will help.
Let's face it, polite kids and capable parents aren't entertaining enough for tv.
My children don't copy the behavior seen on these programs, but that's not the point.
The point is, there's millions of other children that don't understand the difference between real life and TV who are making their parents rip their hair out because of the behavior seen on these shows. And a good chunk of parents don't watch televison with their children, so they're not able to identify the source right away.
If you have a child that watches the Disney Channel, I recommend you sit down one day and watch some of their favorite shows with them. I was off work on a sick day on Friday, and I decided to do exactly that. And I was less than thrilled, to say the least.
Never in my life have I seen destruction of property and disrespect to adults so heavily encouraged and idolized. There was one show that practically consisted entirely of making fun of parents. Children that are under 15 have free reign of their homes, and pratically no parental guidance and control is seen. When they do make a rare appearance, the parents are often portrayed as 'the bad guy' or stupid, ignorant and clumsy. When a child makes a sarcastic or rude remark to their parents, they are met with roaring laughter from the crowds. Personally, I think its really uncalled for.
And I don't think I'm alone in that opinion.
If you put on shows for kids where the parents are always around, always punishing and overbearing no kid is going to watch the show.
Same as if you made a "normal" show, where the parents were around a decent amount, kids got in trouble for things but still had fun, you'd bore the kids to death.
Those companies make those shows because its what appeals to the teenage mind.
You either let them watch the shows or you don't.
I grew up watching nickelodeon and Disney.
I was similarly shocked when I read a version of a children's bible. There was too much violence in it portraying only an angry, punishing God.
This was a CHILDREN'S BIBLE that would give preschoolers nightmares!
I remember Noah's Ark being a great childhood story about Noah's family and the animals being saved because Noah was good and the animals were innocent.
This children's bible focused more on God killing everyone in a flood because he was ANGRY.
Yep, definitely pay attention to what you're children see and hear. Not just TV, read that children's bible and pop in on Sunday school classes too!
The Disney model is to replace the parents - often the mother.
Look at all the movies and shows where the parent characters are evil or at least one is absent. Disney steps in to fill that role.
I reckon kids do role play what they see on TV. Show kids a kung fu movie and just watch what they play the next day. Show em cowboys and indians and see what they play etc etc.
If you put on shows for kids where the parents are always around, always punishing and overbearing no kid is going to watch the show.
Same as if you made a "normal" show, where the parents were around a decent amount, kids got in trouble for things but still had fun, you'd bore the kids to death.
Those companies make those shows because its what appeals to the teenage mind.
You either let them watch the shows or you don't.
I grew up watching nickelodeon and Disney.
Come on. Up until very recently parents were respected in children's TV shows. This is a very new trend. Shows when I was growing up in the early 90's had children respecting their parents and being punished for doing wrong. Kids still loved the shows. Disney Channel has some shows that are horrible examples for children. These shows are not for teenagers, they are for kids.
Disney lost its magic right around the same time MTV lost it's cool. My kids have not grown up with TV, thank you baby Jesus! We do have Netflix and we watch our own DVD's. We also get the public broadcasting channel - here it's OPB and there are some really cool programs on OPB that we watch sometimes. Like History Detectives, Oregon Art Beat, and Oregon Field Guide. Anyway... what do our kids watch?
Our 11 year old's favorite shows right now are Monk (the OCD detective, such a great show...), Northern Exposure (his favorite character is Ed), and the Catherine Tate Show (British comedy, favorite character is the lady that screams at every little sound). He also really likes Creature Comforts, both the British and American versions.
Our 15 year old isn't really into TV at all. He'll watch a film with us about once or twice a week but he's more into reading novels and listening to music. His favorite author right now is Sherman Alexie.
I miss the old Disney. And I want my old MTV back, too.
If you have a child that watches the Disney Channel, I recommend you sit down one day and watch some of their favorite shows with them. I was off work on a sick day on Friday, and I decided to do exactly that. And I was less than thrilled, to say the least.
Never in my life have I seen destruction of property and disrespect to adults so heavily encouraged and idolized. There was one show that practically consisted entirely of making fun of parents. Children that are under 15 have free reign of their homes, and pratically no parental guidance and control is seen. When they do make a rare appearance, the parents are often portrayed as 'the bad guy' or stupid, ignorant and clumsy. When a child makes a sarcastic or rude remark to their parents, they are met with roaring laughter from the crowds. Personally, I think its really uncalled for.
And I don't think I'm alone in that opinion.
No. You are not alone.
I totally agree with you. We don't watch much TV and not the Disney Channel. But I also recommend you start taking a peek at the books your kids bring home from the school library. You'll find almost all of them portray good old mom and dad as alcoholics, druggies, deadbeat dads, missing moms or just plain idiot parents who know nothing and need to be taught how to save the planet by their kids. The novels, btw, tend to be filled with lots of sex, violence and profanity as well as ends justify the means type crime. AntiChristianity is another theme woven into the plots. A lot of these books have sweet looking covers that would fool you until you actually start reading them. Very different than when I was in school. I was pretty shocked when my 10 y.o. dd started middle school and came home with some of these books, especially since we had always been very involved parents and were good about monitoring the TV, movies & computer. Who knew the school library books were filled with the very stuff parents are warned to try and protect their kids from! We ended up switching to a religious private school. Good luck!
The problem is that books don't run a gamut. If you do not care for a particular genre or style, you don't read it.
As for the portrayal of parents, this is a trend some 20 years old. My grandmother has spoken against this quite frequently. She had pointed out that it began with the Simpsons denigrating the American father. About 10 years ago when it came into its own, it was in vogue to have the witty, sassy, pretty mom and the just-can't-get-it-right bumbling, beer belly father.
At least the parent bashing of this decade is gender neutral.
Last edited by Amelorn; 03-21-2011 at 05:11 AM..
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