I recently became aware about the fact that my kids are not influenced by commercials the way I once was when I was a kid. With the way we watch TV these days, recording shows and fast forwarding through the commercials, or On Demand which has no commercials, how would they know. Not to mention most of what I allow them to watch is on PBS, which has no commercials anyway. I remember watching TV on Saturday mornings when I was little and finding all kinds of toys that I wanted for my birthday or Christmas during the break from "Scooby Doo". My girls have no idea what toys are out there unless someone they know has it. It's kind of nice not having them influenced by advertising. HOWEVER-you know how when you take something completely away from them, like sugar or TV, when they do get those things, they go a little nuts for it. This is what happened last week when my girls did discover a few commercials.
Even though they don't usually watch shows in real time on TV, last week I allowed it. Lana had a fever (for a freaking week!) and all she wanted to do was sit on the couch. She didn't want to play games, look at books or play Barbies. All she could do was lay, watch and sleep. After a while she got bored with the same shows I had recorded on PBS, and all she really wanted to watch was "My Little Ponies" on Nickelodeon. It's not a great show, but since she was so sick, I was letting her do whatever she wanted. The problem with allowing her to watch whatever she wanted was that it meant the other two also got in on the action. Nothing I could really do about that. At least Sonya was in school most of the day. So Lana and Georgia sat and went to pony land. Turns out that Nickelodeon does have commercials. The funny thing is most of them are very infomercial like. There are a few regular ones, but for the most part they are commercials for new things you might not see in stores yet. What kind of things? You might ask. Well Georgia told me.
I was showering one morning and she came back into the bathroom and said to me, "Mommy! Can we get the icthe cream thing where you put in the sthtuff and you shake, shake, shake and you open da lid and you have icthe cream!"
"What are you talking about?" I asked while soaping up my hair.
"It makesth icthe cream! In three minutesth!" She informs me.
"Ummmm...okay," I said trying to figure out what the hell she was talking about.
"Den you can add your own toppingsth!" She added.
That's when it hit me. I remembered hearing this at one point when they were watching "My Little Pony."
Even though they don't usually watch shows in real time on TV, last week I allowed it. Lana had a fever (for a freaking week!) and all she wanted to do was sit on the couch. She didn't want to play games, look at books or play Barbies. All she could do was lay, watch and sleep. After a while she got bored with the same shows I had recorded on PBS, and all she really wanted to watch was "My Little Ponies" on Nickelodeon. It's not a great show, but since she was so sick, I was letting her do whatever she wanted. The problem with allowing her to watch whatever she wanted was that it meant the other two also got in on the action. Nothing I could really do about that. At least Sonya was in school most of the day. So Lana and Georgia sat and went to pony land. Turns out that Nickelodeon does have commercials. The funny thing is most of them are very infomercial like. There are a few regular ones, but for the most part they are commercials for new things you might not see in stores yet. What kind of things? You might ask. Well Georgia told me.
I was showering one morning and she came back into the bathroom and said to me, "Mommy! Can we get the icthe cream thing where you put in the sthtuff and you shake, shake, shake and you open da lid and you have icthe cream!"
"What are you talking about?" I asked while soaping up my hair.
"It makesth icthe cream! In three minutesth!" She informs me.
"Ummmm...okay," I said trying to figure out what the hell she was talking about.
"Den you can add your own toppingsth!" She added.
That's when it hit me. I remembered hearing this at one point when they were watching "My Little Pony."
Well, it certainly looks awesome. I mean what kid doesn't want to "shake it to make it" and get ice cream in just THREE minutes! I'm sure it works. Plus look how cute the ice cream cone cups are.
I tried to explain to Georgia that I doubted it worked very well, and we would not be buying Ice Cream Magic today. She was understandably disappointed and now asks me on a daily basis if we can get it.
"BUT MOM! You justht shake it to get icthe cream!"
That's called advertising kid. They make it LOOK like that's all you have to do. And who knows maybe you do. However, their three minute mark might be slightly off. I'm guessing after shaking for about 20 minutes, if it even resembles ice cream at THAT point, she might be over even having the ice cream. Plus who do you think will end up having to shake it after a while? That's all I need to add to my daily routine.
After that, I tried to go back to just letting them watch PBS, but a couple other Pony shows got in there and that's where I learned about the pillow pet that lights up. Because we don't have enough of that crap in our house. Lana finally got better and went back to school on Wednesday and I banned the TV. That is until Georgia came down with the fever yesterday. I'm making her watch Sesame Street.
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