I dislike Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood

[Anonymous]

Daniel Tiger is a whiner and Katerina Kitty Cat needs to get to the point without the superfluous meowing. It is banned in our house.

OP, it sounds like Storybots should be your go-to show.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To me Daniel Tiger is the equivalent of Barney in the 90s, too much moralizing and not very fun. My first grader still watches it to wake up in the morning but he would be embarrassed if his friends knew that.
My favorite PBS show is Curious George because it is slow paced and soothing.
I like Xavier Riddle because they picked a diverse group of heroes without being ham handed about it and it is a highly patriotic show. I would prefer my kids be proud of their country.
Also on the show Alma's Way there was a Christmas special which included scenes of the Nativity and the story of the three wise men which I found interesting. I can't imagine they could have gotten away with that without the ethnic angle.

So children't shows shouldn't show kids right from wrong? What is too moral?
According to the OP it's a black scientist and a woman who does handy work. by the way--I know a couple where the wife does all the projects!

And Barney had great songs.

[Anonymous]

Bluey is better than Daniel Tiger, imo. The show still has the nice messaging/moralizing, but it’s funnier. I still love Daniel Tiger though and I’ll be sad when my kids outgrow it! It’s a sweet show.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Listen, the real reason to not like Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood is because they have tiger skin curtains in their house. Oh, and the pants thing, especially because the does where them when he in in pajamas.

I have a children's book where pigs eat bacon for breakfast....

[Anonymous]

OP here.

Thanks for comments with recommendations about alternative shows! I'll check them out. I'm not against diverse characters, or morals in children's works. But when something feels fake, ham-handed, and just not thought out, if it passes from fable to propaganda, I won't like it. You don't have to be a crazy person with outlandish politics to think so, which I don't think I am (but you all have no way of verifying that anyway.)

Glad to find someone like minded. PBS is apparently marathoning Arthur all of today, so that's what we happened to catch, and I was happy - got a bit of nostalgia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To me Daniel Tiger is the equivalent of Barney in the 90s, too much moralizing and not very fun. My first grader still watches it to wake up in the morning but he would be embarrassed if his friends knew that.
My favorite PBS show is Curious George because it is slow paced and soothing.
I like Xavier Riddle because they picked a diverse group of heroes without being ham handed about it and it is a highly patriotic show. I would prefer my kids be proud of their country.
Also on the show Alma's Way there was a Christmas special which included scenes of the Nativity and the story of the three wise men which I found interesting. I can't imagine they could have gotten away with that without the ethnic angle.

So children't shows shouldn't show kids right from wrong? What is too moral?
According to the OP it's a black scientist and a woman who does handy work. by the way--I know a couple where the wife does all the projects!

And Barney had great songs.

My kids are currently obsessed with the Peanuts movies, now for example Lucy is mean and therefore no one likes her. That's a lesson for kids to learn. No one is EVER mean on Daniel Tiger. It's like a South Park parody of a children's show.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Daniel Tiger is a whiner and Katerina Kitty Cat needs to get to the point without the superfluous meowing. It is banned in our house.

OP, it sounds like Storybots should be your go-to show.

No way, Storybots is way too crazy for OP. She's way too literal to deal with Storybots - "Jennifer Garner worked at a telephone switchboards, but those don't even exist anymore, that would be way too confusing for my child!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bluey is better than Daniel Tiger, imo. The show still has the nice messaging/moralizing, but it’s funnier. I still love Daniel Tiger though and I’ll be sad when my kids outgrow it! It’s a sweet show.

Oh my god, Bluey is by far the best show ever and clearly written by a dad of 4 and 7 year olds who knows the parents will be watching with them. That man knows his audiences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listen, the real reason to not like Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood is because they have tiger skin curtains in their house. Oh, and the pants thing, especially because the does where them when he in in pajamas.

I have a children's book where pigs eat bacon for breakfast....

lol

[Anonymous]

Daniel Tiger is a pussy, and I don't mean in the feline sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids were watching it this morning and I really dislike this show (and, to a lesser extent, a lot of the PBS lineup these days).

They have very positive toddler-focused messages. Their representation is just so, sometimes a bit too much so (e.g. it's Daniel's mom who always fixes things with the tools, and never his dad? I get it, it's important to normalize women and girls as being able to do masculine work, but I guess now we can never depict a man doing that kind of work anymore?) But what really gets me is the thought doesn't go deeper than this thin veneer of sense/morality for toddlers.

Here are some examples:
Today, King Friday tells Daniel, "being a king is about helping others." No, it's not. I mean that's part of it, but it's about leadership, wisdom, honor, responsibility for those under your care. I get that getting into heavy detail is maybe too much for toddlers, but it feels like beyond the egalitarianism (reinforced by Prince Tuesday doing all the odd jobs around town), they didn't really think any deeper than that, how to render the idea of a "king" in a modern story and make it work (because for the modern morality it's not, I guess, but there was a King Friday in the original Mr. Roger's neighborhood!).

Or the other day, Miss Elaina was drawing pictures of leaves, insects, etc. - in particular, a snail - in her little sketch book and said, "I'm a scientist, which means I'm curious about the world!" Sure, we got representation of an African American Girl as Scientist, but that's not what the quintessence of a scientist is. Curiosity and recording are part of it, but a scientist tries to understand the *truth* about the natural world, dispassionately based on evidence and observation. It's about finding out how the world works. And if a scientist was writing that script I have a feeling they'd include that bit.

Or I remember one episode from a long time ago where the kids go to see a crayon factory. I was excited - in the old Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, they'd show a video of how things are made in almost every episode. In this one, they don't really give you an understanding how crayons are made. The color is added (great) but they don't pour hot wax into molds, or let them cool, or show the inner workings of any machines. The crayons just kind of materialize out of a closed machine. And maybe toddlers don't need anymore, but the better-done shows HAVE more, just like well-illustrated picture books, and good children's media (including books) in general.

I find this lack of thought, things that carelessly make no sense, in a lot of children's media and toys and it annoys me. (E.g., a polar bear in a puzzle with otherwise African Savannah animals, predatory animals being friends with their prey, tropical fruits growing along with non-tropical ones in the same forest....)


Repeat after me. The show is not for you. The show is not for you. The show is not for you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jesus, wtf do you want? Just turn off the TV and teach your kids yourself. I’m sure you’ll be perfect.

+100

[Anonymous]

Leadership is helping others. I confess I stopped reading after that paragraph. Daniel Tiger is amazing, I’m sorry it is triggering you repeatedly for some reason. It really isn’t trying to attack you or traditional values. If anything, it’s very Christian, equality of souls and all that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Daniel Tiger is a whiner and Katerina Kitty Cat needs to get to the point without the superfluous meowing. It is banned in our house.

OP, it sounds like Storybots should be your go-to show.

No way, Storybots is way too crazy for OP. She's way too literal to deal with Storybots - "Jennifer Garner worked at a telephone switchboards, but those don't even exist anymore, that would be way too confusing for my child!"

OP here.
I've never checked out story bots. It's not "oh it's not real life", or it being figurative. It's the dumbing down of things, the lack of thought and attention to logic, that bothers me.

[Anonymous]

“a scientist tries to understand the *truth* about the natural world”

Not really, a scientist tries to make a small contribution to the humanity’s knowledge frontier, knowing she (!) will likely be disproven by those who follow. Curiosity is truly the essence.

-researcher