The ban on the eternal 4 year-old bald cartoon character

 

Until Princess Peach was around a year old The Hubster and I didn’t want her exposed to screens. This included TV, iPad, computers etc. We spent the first year of her life playing, singing, listening to music, reading books and just interacting with one another all the time!

Then she became mobile and diaper changes became an impossible challenge. I dreaded having to change her diaper for a while. She would fight tooth and nail to sit still for a second to do a quick diaper swap. So, we downloaded some apps on our iPhones and would hand our phones over to Princess Peach in order to change her diaper. It worked.

Then after a year we decided that although she would still have limited screen time that she would be exposed to some TV. As we don’t have cable, but do have Netflix, we were limited in our show choices to some extent. First came Franklin on YouTube and on Netflix. Then the majority of the episodes were deleted on YouTube and taken off of Netflix. Imagine the horror?! What do we show her now???

So we tried Dora the Explorer but she wasn’t so interested. Then we tried Sesame Street which she instantly fell in love with. To add a new face to the mix we added in Caillou. She also fell for him. This little eternal blad 4-year old cartoon character totally entertained Princess Peach. I don’t know what the draw was to him but when he was on she was totally mesmerized. She even laughed along with some of the humor which made The Hubster and I laugh too.

Recently, Princess Peach started to whine. Whine, whine, whine. For no reason especially when she has words to use now and can use them! Even asking for water could induce a Princess Peach whine fest. Whining drives me NUTS. I really can’t stand it. So i sat down and thought about it. I couldn’t figure out what was causing Princess Peach’s excessive whining. Her daycare teachers hadn’t mentioned anything about it and it wasn’t happening all the time.

Then I was reading something online and it was about how parents were banning Caillou because he whines and is generally annoying. Then in dawned on me. What if Princess Peach was whining because of Caillou? I told The Hubster and instantly we decided that Caillou is now banned from our house. I cannot willingly show Princess Peach a character to watch who whines for an entire 20 minutes. It baffles me that I didn’t realize or recognize Caillou’s whining sooner. Usually I’m pretty quick to notice these things, but this just went right by me. We have been 8 days in to our self-imposed Caillou ban and although Princess Peach still does whine it is getting better.

So for now, we are sticking with other TV shows that are more educational and are exposing her to the alphabet and numbers which she is already super interested in! I’ve even thrown some Disney into the mix because well I just love Disney movies!!

Have you ever banned a TV show/character from your house?

Comments

  1. Hope says:

    We HATE Cailou in the house. I had to cut him off months and months ago – we also banned Peter Pan – we stick to as much educational as possible – I will take Toopy and Binou any day

    • mscmommylife says:

      We have only seen Toopy and Binou a handful of times. Maybe I should add that show into the mix too!

  2. When our kids were young, it was only Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, and the classic Disney flicks. Computer time was limited to educational software and thankfully there was no ipad, netflix (not that I have either now). Lots of time was spent reading books and just some good old fun playing outside. Sure my kids whined but it was because they were probably overtired and a quick nap usually did the trick. There are way too many things for the young ones today, when sometimes it is just best to get some fresh air.

    • mscmommylife says:

      I totally agree Catherine. Her screen time is still very much limited and she is a true outdoors girl at heart! If it was up to her she would never come inside and just play outside ALL day long!

  3. Sarah Lynn says:

    Oh My Goodness. I HATE CAILOU SO SO MUCH! I haven’t banned him for your reasons (although they are very good), I banned him because I didn’t want him on my TV. We also only have Netflix (although we get TVO and CBC). While we never “just watch TV” I really like the shows that actually teach things like reading/spelling/alphabet (Super Why) or about animals (The Cat in the Hat Knows a lot about That) or science (Sid, The Science Kid) and all around awesome Sesame Street. Grandma has cable so we watch Bubble Guppies on Treehouse there. If she grows up to sing a happy song about everything she does, I’d much prefer that over whining!

    Great post, and sorry for the rant. 🙂

    • mscmommylife says:

      So funny that so many parents hate Caillou as much as I do! She’s seen The Cat in the Hat a few times a LOVES it! I too prefer educational based shows where she will learn things too.

  4. Jennifer says:

    I try to limit tv but honestly, now that I have another baby, tv for my toddler is a lifesaver somedays…it’s soooo hard to nurse, put the baby to sleep, etc unless the toddler is thoroughly distracted. In a perfect parenting world I’d have kid-friendlystations with Lego, playdoh and water play set up for her to keep her occupied but that’s hard to do on an avg 5 hrs/night sleep. It’s interesting that you mention Caillou and whining – I’ve heard that from other parents too. But my 2year old has never watched Caillou and she is the whine QUEEN. Started around 20 months or so… Could be an age thing regardless of Caillou’s influence 😉

    • mscmommylife says:

      I’m sure I will also up Princess Peach’s TV watching when I I’m home alone with her and the baby. I agree that her whining may be an age thing and not related to Caillou at all. I can’t knowingly let her watch Caillou with all of his whining just in case it is related.

  5. I agree, he whines a lot. If I can’t stand it & it’s not teaching something good, we don’t watch it.

  6. Teresa Fox says:

    my sister-in-law noticed the same thing with her daughter & banned Caillou immediately! Even through out dvds that they had bought so no other kids were exposed! Since having my 3 kids, he has been banned in our house too! still have whiny kids, but at least I feel better knowing that they never watched crap like that in my house!

    • mscmommylife says:

      The funny thing is that she hasn’t even noticed since we banned him! I’m happy about that.

  7. we banned the whinny baldie too!! Though occasionally smarty pants manages to surf on to a channel that has him.. and then tell me ” Ca-UUUU is here mom.. he’s not gone” oops! We need a coalition to stop this cartoon!

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