Wednesday, March 22, 2006

What my kids are learning from TV

Anis was chewing on her vitamin C the other day when she declared
"Bonda, this vitamin is so gross!!" with expression to fit.
"whaaaaat...?" I said, coz she said "gwoss" and I wasnt sure if she knew what 'gross' is.
"It is soooo grossss" she said, making a face.
I laughed as I asked where she learnt that word and she said "From DeeDee" (Dexter's sister).

Yesterday she was just sitting around and she said
"Eeee.. siapa kentut? I smell a butt" (who farted? I smell a butt)
"You smell what??"
"A smelly butt"
I was laughing so hard I forgot to teach her about talking politely.

In the morning she was running around singing "wabershicenwabershicenwabershicen" over and over, which I think means "rubber chicken rubber chicken rubber chicken" .. I think she picked this up from Jojo's circus.
At least she's not in her "shtupid dog!" phase, anymore.

oh yeah, and the other day I caught Anis sniffing the TV.
Then I noticed that Bear In the Big Blue House was on. You know how that bear was always pretending to sniff and smell you and ask if you've just been playing outside?
Anis says the bear is smelly..
(ha ha maybe sebab dia tak suka mandi..)

I must admit, we're a family that just lurrrrves to watch TV. When we went back to M'sia, the kids kept wanting to go to their grandma's house coz nenek has Astro and we don't anymore.
I try to control and monitor what my kids watch as much as I can, and I think I am quite strict when it comes to what I do let them watch. It's really a good thing that I love watching cartoons as well, so usually I am quite in touch with what's showing on TV and am well aware of which shows I don't agree with.
I don't let them watch Ed,Edd and Eddie (even though i find that show hilarious and is always partial to anybody named 'Eddie'), because they are super naughty and they scream a lot.
Kids Next Door is also another problem, because I think it teaches the kids to mistrust adults and form negative opinions about authority. I enjoy the fact that it teaches my kidsa about acronyms and such, though. Ilham is always making up secret codes.. he writes his name as M.I.M.T. now (M0hamadd Ilham M0hamed Taufik).
Cow and Chicken and I am Weasel... I used to LOVE this show. But ever since I got kids.. I don't think they're suitable.. too many butts.

If I have the time, I would sit and watch the shows with them and make appropriate comments .. like "eee that's not nice" or "eewww that is so nasty" or "why are they always screaming??" or "whay does he like to say stupid?"
I think my kids get the point, i.e. what is appropriate and what is not.
Sometimes I would hear the theme song to Ed,Edd and Eddy (which I find to be really catchy, by the way) while I was cooking in the kitchen and I would hear Ilham say "Bonda doesn't let us watch this, let's change to Disney Channel" and then I would hear Kim Possible next.

But despite the negative bits that they pick up from TV (which we can control and monitor and correct), I think they're picking up a lot of positive things too.
They get their weekly dose of insect-facts from Buggin' with Rudd. They always scream "i want this I want this" (meaning they want to watch this show so please don't change the channel) whenever there's a show about planes or ships or tanks or trucks or whatever massive machinery. Sometiems they'd ask me what words mean.. and I think that's good.

The other day I overheard Ilham say "Lets play...(pause) ... the weakest link." in his best Anne R0binson impression. *snicker*

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