At what age is it appropriate to watch??????

[Anonymous]

My 7 year old loves to watch T.V. shows that I feel are geared towards older kids, such as Supah Ninjas, I-Carly, Victorious, Big Time Rush etc....Overall, they are fine and innocent enough but there is some content that appears to be for more mature veiwers. He has been watching these shows for a few months now and I see that he is immitating some of the sassy teen talk, etc....Not sure what to do now. Feel like I screwed up, and wondering If I should stop letting him watch them. Seems like he went from sweet innocent shows like Calliou, Wow Wow Wubzy and The Wiggles to this stuff almost overnight. BTW-we limit TV to an hour per night and less on weekends as we are usually not home then. What are other 7-8 year olds watching????

[Anonymous]

I hate those shows so much, they make me want to pluck my eyes out. They are so superficial and IMO, teach nothing. While I know TV isn't a teaching tool, at least there seemed to be some quality content in shows like Curious George and Wild Kratts and Arthur.

My 5.5 year old occasionally watches Big Time Rush because he saw this stuff over his older cousins' houses. I like a website called Common Sense Media which rates and reviews TV and movies for content and age-appropriateness, and it says these shows are fine for ages 8 and up. But to me the humor (term used loosely) is older. My son can have some trouble with older themes seen on Arthur. One show was about Internet addiction and he had no idea how to relate to that at all. So while these shows may be harmless re: sex and violence, they are meant to appeal to a slightly older demographic and may not be ideal for every viewer.

The new school year may offer a natural resin for you to cut back on these shows. Read up on them on Common Sense Media if you want. Or watch with him to see if there is any particular show you think is a bigger influence on that pre-teen attitude. I'd probably cut back on them, but then as I said I HATE them, so I'm biased.

You might want to see if there are other shows he might like instead. Ninjago maybe? Although that's really commercialized too. Or something in reruns?

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

yeah, I had those shows. My dd is 6.5, and I steer her away from those. I hate iCarly!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:yeah, I had those shows. My dd is 6.5, and I steer her away from those. I hate iCarly!

Oops, meant to say I hate those shows.

[Anonymous]

My 6.5 yo has started watching "The Regular Show" which is obviously geared towards much older kids even though it is a cartoon. This past weekend he started asking about and saying "Friends without benefits" which is a line in one of the episodes.

I think as I his parent, I just need to say - no more "Regular Show."

[Anonymous]

I think you can always back it up - it's never too late. You can just say, listen, "the more we watch these shows the more I think they are not appropriate for you. you can watch X or Y, but not this anymore." end of story.

[Anonymous]

When my DD was 8 she discovered iCarly at a friends house. After watching it together we talked about some of the characters and how they acted. She is able to watch it as a treat, but we have an understanding that if it impacts her behavior in any way, particularly if she starts acting or talking like Sam, she will no longer be able to watch it. She probably watches it now once every week or two, often together. In many ways it gives us an opportunity to talk about behaviors that we won't accept at home and why in a very non-threatening/realistic way that she seems to understand. We've had a few warnings about beginning to sound/act like Sam, but that's it.

[Anonymous]

If it helps, he might pick that stuff up at school regardless of what you're watching. We don't watch any shows geared toward teens or tweens (mostly just Fresh Beat and Chloe's Closet and Curious George) but my daughter - who is not even 4 - has picked up quite a bit of the sassy teen/tween talk too. So it may be a lost cause no matter what you do.

[Anonymous]

I think 09:00 gives the best. I have a rule about no Regular Show. I really hate that show. I also don't allow Mad.

My 8-year-old doesn't watch any of the shows you mentioned, but he does watch Ninjago, Bakugan, and Johnny Test. He tries to sneak in Annoying Orange, Gumball, and Level Up. I typically veto these shows.

He moved from PBS cartoons to Disney Channel cartoons when he was about 6.5. He moved from Disney to Cartoon Network when he was about 7.5. He has a really good friend who is about 2.5 years older (only 2 grades, though), so we get a lot of tv influence from the friend.

Sometimes he goes back to the acted shows on Disney Channel - ANT Farm, Jessie, Good Luck Charlie, and something else. I am 50/50 on these shows. There is backtalk on the shows. and just general disrespect from adults to kids and also kids to adults. I've tried to use those situations as examples on saying how it isn't polite behavior, etc.

[Anonymous]

I see that he is immitating some of the sassy teen talk, etc..

You don't need to ban the shows to deal with this behavior and whether you do it now or later, you're eventually going to get this behavior. FWIW, I can't imagine your child going back to Calliou and the Wiggles at his age. I-Carly, Victorious and the like are pretty much the next step up is he likes that type of show. My oldest was into cartoons, so at 7, he was really into Tom & Jerry and things like that. But by 7, my younger two had discovered I-Carly, Good Luck Charlie, Zach and Cody, etc.

[Anonymous]

bump

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 7 year old loves to watch T.V. shows that I feel are geared towards older kids, such as Supah Ninjas, I-Carly, Victorious, Big Time Rush etc....Overall, they are fine and innocent enough but there is some content that appears to be for more mature veiwers. He has been watching these shows for a few months now and I see that he is immitating some of the sassy teen talk, etc....Not sure what to do now. Feel like I screwed up, and wondering If I should stop letting him watch them. Seems like he went from sweet innocent shows like Calliou, Wow Wow Wubzy and The Wiggles to this stuff almost overnight. BTW-we limit TV to an hour per night and less on weekends as we are usually not home then. What are other 7-8 year olds watching????

I am not strict about TV time for my preschoolers BUT they won't be watching those shows. I have seen them with my niece and nephew and they are terrible. The sassy teen talk is terrible! (And I was a sassy teen back in the day!)

[Anonymous]

I don't like them much either but your 7 yr old would probably be talking sassy talk w/o watching them. It is pretty typical for the age.

[Anonymous]

This is a depressing thread. Are there any good shows out there? My DD is only 3, so we primarily watch movies right now and I can control which movies we have in the house. The only TV she knows is Yo Gabba Gabba (though she's kind of outgrowing it) and we've watched some of the cartoon network flashback shows a few times (tom and jerry, scooby doo, the jetsons, etc.). I watched a single episode of SpongeBob and almost scratched my eyes out - that show is terrible! Is there any worthwhile kids television show?

[Anonymous]

my 8 year old likes "how'd they do that" or shows like how they built the Olympic Aquatic Stadium. Although, when given the choice, he would much rather be playing "mindcraft" on the computer or playing "where's my water" on the ipad. no commercials to deal with there...we also have good luck streaming oldies like "inspector gadget" from Amazon.