Make Your Baby Stupid Even Earlier With BabyFirstTv
May 11, 2006 by Wendy Boswell
According to the Advocate, there’s going to be a new TV channel in town called BabyFirstTV. Let’s go the official BabyFirstTV site and check it out, shall we?
“Welcome to BabyFirstTV – the nation’s first channel for babies!
The channel offers 24/7 DVD-quality programs with a unique parent co-viewing experience for only $9.99 a month, less than a single baby DVD.”
Okay, so, first, what the hell is a baby doing watching TV? 24 hours a day? What, instead of Letterman little Jonny is going to get up, grab a sandwich, and check out what’s new over at “Reality Rattles” or “Diaper Rash News”?
Oh, but the best is the FAQ – What can What can BabyFirstTV do for my baby?. You mean, other than scar them for life? Well, let’s see, shall we?
“BabyFirstTV transforms traditional TV into an interactive and educational tool that relies on the television as a medium to deliver high-quality programming and an engaging experience for both baby and parents. BabyFirstTV can enrich the connection between parents and baby and give them new opportunities for learning and playing together.”
Once you take out all the marketing crap in there, it’s boiled down to this: BabyFirstTV will get that baby to stopp bugging you so you can get some &$^% done. Okey dokey! Next:
“As BabyFirstTV encourages parents to have an active role, the channel offers unique parents’ subtitles for parents to guide them on words and movements to use with baby during the programs – making the experience as educational and engaging as reading a book.”
Because, you know, reading a book is SO passe. Let’s watch TV instead and have IT read our books for us..tell us what to do…oh, wonderful TV don’t ever leave me! See! The indoctrination is already starting!
“We offer 24/7 programming, as well as video-on-demand (VOD) capabilities to help provide you with access to our programming when and where you need it. We also offer content for different times of the day – daytime programs engage and delight, while nighttime content can help soothe your baby as she prepares for sleep.”
Oh, this is just sad. Instead of rocking your baby to sleep and singing lullabies, you can just park the little boogers in front of the boob tube and let it parent your children. What kind of sicko dreamed this crap up? It’s truly Orwellian.
Nauseating.
Thanks for the heads up. This is appalling.
Why not just skip the expensive TV subscription, and having to worry about keeping the little one correctly propped up on the pillow so the TV is within visual range? Why not just drug the children with a 24 hour tranquilizer drip. And for that quality time, a quick 15 minute burst of amphetamines for a bouncy playful time with your little one before he/she slips back into the drug-induced coma.
I live in Israel, and we had a channel like that offered about a year ago. I should go check to see whether it still exists, i.e. whether or not the business model was correct that predicted parents would pay for this.
Wow, talk about a way to teach children that TV is their Friend… & so are the Friendly FoxNews Faces that they’ll learn to love & admire.
*shudder*
Reminds me of the stories of cults, 1984 & those ‘Monkey Love’ experiments by Harlow in the 50s… http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Harlow/love.htm
Wasn’t one of our FIRST Psychologists a corporate turncoat? You remember, Watson, the father of Behaviorism… http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Watson/intro.htm
BlueBerry Pick’n
can be found @
ThisCanadian.com
“Silent Freedom is Freedom Silenced”
Not having seen BabyFirstTV firsthand (have you?), I’m not able to assess it accurately. However, TV is a permanent fixture in almost everyone’s life in the 21st century. I can’t say that my family watches it 24/7 but I’m not ashamed of saying that yes, we do enjoy TV. Educational TV stations like BabyFirstTV certainly beats having kids turn to a random channel and watching shows and movies glorifying sex, drugs, and violence.
I also posted about it at Play Library.
i think this is a wonderful station my kids love it and i am an early childhood teacher i have been letting them watch it and they all love it my kids and the baies and kids i teach so no matter what mindless dribble say i think it is great
My sister has her Master’s in Developmental Psychology. I gotta say, with 5 kids, she has her hands full.
But she has this THING about tv. I don’t know if its because we’re genetically related, but didn’t grow up together… so call it nature vs. nurture… I dunno but its amazing that two psychology majors who didn’t grow up together… we both think its a lot of marketing & propaganda.
maybe someone with more education can explain that to me?
BlueBerry Pick’n
can be found @
ThisCanadian.com
“Silent Freedom is Freedom Silenced”
I am a grandmother to a wonder, special little boy. I have also taught Pre-K for the past 10 years. I am normally opposed to anything on TV geared towards children. But, as I was planning on bashing this show, I, as an intelligent adult I actually watched the program. I admit I was not even open-minded. To my great surprise I found BabyFirst to be a wonderful network. I read to each of my children as I have to my grandson since he was 6 months old. I normally only keep him one night a week so our time is treasured. I watch each moment of BabyFirst with him and we use it more as an enrichment than anything. It is not my baby-sitter or companion but something we enjoy during our quiet time together. He has a great vocabulary for his age and is extremely curious about everything going on in the world around him. He is far from stupid and is extremely loved, secure and confident. What more could any child need! JG
P.S. None on his words have to be bleeped out.
Well, that’s great! Sounds like he’s well on his way to being a happy little television robot. Keep it up, Gramma!
I should tell you that this comment is coming from someone deeply involved with a child learning and growing. In fact my wife and I have a show called http://childrensbookradio.com that is focused in Children’s books. We also have a site called http://lawithkids.com which is focused on getting out of the house.
However…..
I want to find the parent that actively engages their newborn 24 hours a day.
Let me be a little clearer. For the parent that is going to have the TV on when there is a baby present, why not have this on vs. content that is clearly inappropriate and not geared for kids.
you are all gay
you are so mean 2 babies so much you can go **** yourself. good-bye
Please note that the above positive comments read an awful like plants by the station producers.
I have two young boys. I enjoy watching baby first tv with both of them.
yeah right, what makes the author or any other negative commenters think that they have the almighty perfect parenting skills. Any issues that are created in a childs life comes out in the thirties or forties anyways so don’t go on bragging about your college graduate six-digit money earner either. Babyfirst is alright and does not make someone a negative parent or have a stupid child if they watch it. There’s alot worse things a parent csn do. Like not being cautious about what adults they let thier child spend time with. It may be a monster in their own family.
TV viewing by children under 3 years of age overstimulates the visual area of the brain. As new brain research unfolds by experts, including Kathy Nunley, we’re learning that it’s damaging our children. What happened to reading to our children, playing games with them, toys, and human interaction? TV products aimed at babies are ridiculous, unnecessary, and harmful.
If you are commenting badly, you actually don’t know how to USE the channel. It is not a passive channel but an active one.
I subscribe and YES, I have degrees in child development. I love the channel and it gives my 18 month old and I some one on one time OUTSIDE of the normal play, books, learning activities etc. that we do. The segments are VERY short and offer a chance to start conversations as I say Hey, remember the number 3 we learned about? It is not meant to be a babysitter. You have to USE it rather than watch it.
First of all there is nothing wrong with baby first TV. Second of all just because it’s 24/7 doesn’t mean you have to let them watch it all day. Baby first TV is mean for the parent and the child to watch together.
I didn’t mean to type the word mean i was meaning to type meant.