Friday, November 16, 2012

I'm Becoming One Of "Those" Parents

Before I had kids, and even after, I was (and am) boggled at some of the reactions some parents have to "normal" things. 

Like being upset Sesame Street is called Sesame Street, because it encourages playing in the street or some such nonsense (I grew up watching it and not once did I think "hey, I'll go play on the road"). 

Or how about losing it at little Johnny's little league game - it's a bunch of kids, it's not like they're playing for money... are they?  If so, we need to get Lynden enrolled stat! 

I think kids need to be exposed to real life events; granted I'm not talking to Lynden about the circle of life or anything, but I feel they need to know enough so they're not shell shocked when something happens and we're not there.  (It's a fine line between educating and scaring the crap out of your kids)

However, there has to be a line and this week I found it. 

Lynden was watching Cars cartoons and track reviews on Youtube (Yes, track reviews. He loves watching people play with their tracks, or even a video of someone playing a racing game on their computer. He once sat through a 20 minute video on the selection process for Motor Cross Trends Car of the Year) when this ad came on:




Don't get me wrong, it's not like Lynden hasn't seen boobs before - I breast fed Alyssa for a year.  But, he does not need to know the other side of boobs (you know, the side your husband likes).  As far as he should know women have boobs and we can feed babies from them, that's it. 

As I heard the ad, I quickly got up and stopped the video and found something else for him to watch, much to his dismay as he really wanted to see the video after the ad. 

I think I'm a pretty relaxed parent when it comes to most things, but this crossed a line. 

Really Youtube?!?!?  You can't figure out how to make sure you have the appropriate ads for the right age group.  I'd rather you show ads for toys and candy over sexy bras to my four year old son. 

Am I overreacting to this?


*******************************************************************************
I am still looking for co-hosts for a link-up/blog hop that benefits your local food bank. 

There is no minimum donation goal; it's what's best for you.  For example: for every 10 comments you could donate 5 cans of food, for every 50 comments you could donate $5, etc.  Whatever you decide is fine. 

You can also co-host for any length of time.  A week, a weekend, every Friday, etc.  Again, it's what's best for you. 
The last day to sign up for co-hosting is this Sunday, November 18th. 

Please consider co-hosting.  It benefits your local food bank. 

If you are interested please contact me here or email me at bluepens_30{at}hotmail{dot}com.

14 comments:

  1. I totally agree with you on this one... I feel the same.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm not even a parent and I think its RIDICULOUS that they are playing that ad during childrens programing. Poor poor choice by the network.

    Stopping by from the Friday Blog Hop!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There should be some way for them to be able to set it up differently

      Delete
  3. No, that is HORRIBLE! We like to watch football as a family but I absolutely HATE the commercials! They'll be a Victoria's Secret (which is mild porn if you ask me...) or a Go Daddy and it makes me sick... my oldest is just getting to the age where boobs might start to be seen as something other than baby feeding tools (thanks to a kid a school.. lol) and it's just awful as a society. I try to "shield" them from that as much as possible because they are WAY too young right now, but as they get older I'm going to try to use it as a teaching opportunity. I mean.. we have to live in this world and be able to cope and we can't hide our children under a rock forever (as much as I want to sometimes) so when an ad like that comes on I hope to be bold enough to start a conversation on it and why it's wrong and how women should be treated... I hope. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's really all we can do as parents; use what's given to us to teach them. I'm just not ready to teach about that yet ;o)

      Delete
  4. They need to monitor that better! Come on YouTube, a lot of us parents depend on you for stuff for the kids. We don't have cable or satellite, and PBS doesn't come in with the rabbit ears. So PBSKids and YouTube it is!

    You said your son likes to watch track reviews. My husband is an engineer and my kids like to watch things like dominos falling and lego machines. Great fun stuff!

    Found your blog through the Friday BlogHop, though it's now Sunday. I'm working my way through them... Hello! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's great to see their minds be facinated by wall tracks, machines, and such.

      Delete
  5. YouTube really should have a parent function where we can control what is advertised, it's stupid.

    Popping over from the blog hop
    http://adventuresofayorkshiremummy.blogspot.co.uk/

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hahaha, are there seriously people who get upset with Sesame Street's name? Geez!

    And I totally agree with you in that that ad is totally inappropriate for a kid :/.

    Thank you so much for joining the blog hop and dropping by, Amanda! ;D

    Hope your week's off to a great start! ;D

    Miki.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Youtube's a toughie for me, and I have older kids... but I'm still at the place where essentially if they want to watch Youtube, I have to be there with them. To click on that "x" every once in a while. And I'm a generally pretty hands-off, relaxed parent. So, no, not overreacting.

    ReplyDelete