I think videos like Baby Einstein are closer to child abuse than child development. Babies learn by touching, feeling, interacting and exploring, not by being little couch potatoes. Shame on the companies that foist this crap on parents and shame on the parents that buy into this line of BS. They must be either so vain as to imagine that their little precious ones are so precocious that they would actually understand the videos at 6 months old or so lazy that they use technology and money to try and offset bad parenting. Just my opinion, take it for what it’s worth.
Come to think of it ... I believe there was one or two in the 70's .... OH yeah ... and the 80's ... um ... the 90's and now ...
... and the states these taxpayer 'research' millions go to are all over the map.
I think videos like Baby Einstein are closer to child abuse than child development. Babies learn by touching, feeling, interacting and exploring, not by being little couch potatoes. Shame on the companies that foist this crap on parents and shame on the parents that buy into this line of BS.
Agreed. My son is fifteen months old, and he's never watched television. My wife and I read to him, play games with him, and take him outside - we would never park him in front of the idiot box even if some scam artist tried to foist her garbage off as "educational."
I was really angry to see the Baby Einstein founder as W's guest at the State of the Union - sure seemed like he was validating her crap.
Perhaps its a little strong to say that the companies “foist” this material on parents. We’re all free to choose. The parents can choose to either watch or not, either buy or not. If they don’t consider themselves to be free and believe that this material is being ‘foisted’ on them, then they deserve our sympathy or perhaps even pity.
I disagree. My 3 year old is past the Baby Einstein stage but he really enjoyed them when he was younger. I don't think it is harmful to expose your kid to a few little puppet shows and some classical music. It's not like he didn't touch, feel interact and explore also.
My son is not a couch potato. He has all the wild energy of a 100% boy. If we had forced him to watch Baby Einstein and never interacted with him ourselves, that would be child abuse. But it was just one additional thing he was exposed to that seemed to be mentally stimulating.