Advertisers often use TV, radio, and various forms of print to promote their products. I try to promote healthy choices to Gio usually via books or sometimes by pointing out products in our home or the store. With books unlike TV I can control what information he is exposed to. I have been at peoples homes and seen what is on "children's TV" most of it is not what I consider suitable for my child. Girls dressed provocitively is a big one for me. Don't get me wrong I'm sure there is some very good children's programming out there. Unfortunately a lot of people think if it is cartoons or at some point has something about numbers or letters it's O.K. Not necessarily.
What about the commercials? I remember hearing somewhere advertisers of children's products want their commercials to have something called a high nag factor (not sure if the words nag factor are correct but you get the idea). Point being it's not the children who have the money to buy the products. However if they are nagged enough they are much more likely to purchase it.
I remember having nightmares as a child because of a cartoon I saw. Gio saw part of the Nanny one night where a little boy hit his Grandmother in the nose and he still mentions it every now and then. With TV and radio there is no way to undo what a child has heard or seen. It's not always possible to preview every episode of every show. I never could have imagined those few seconds of the Nanny that he saw would have such an impact on him. I think it's because he just loves his Nana soo much and can't imagine why anyone would hurt theirs.
Many people are big fans of videos. I have people try to persuade me to use them often. I choose not to. I have nothing against other people using them. I just feel I am my children's babysitter not the TV. And I don't want to pop in a video every time I need them to be quiet which I could easily see myself doing. I can see it becoming a bad habit and believe it's just not the right thing to do for my family. He has already started to learn that when someone is on the phone the polite thing to do to keep your voice low (be quiet). I have taught this by example, which is the most powerful teacher.
Now I can't protect him from everything and I can't shelter him forever. But my goal is to protect him until he has a positive foundation to compare the "bad" things against.
Gio and Fabrizio too have many many books. Gio's current favorite he calls Pete. On the cover is a little boy eating a candy bar. Gio will say to me "Pete eaneen tanny (candy) baw?" and I will respond with, "Yes, but what should Pete be eating?" "Poteen baw(protien bar)." I try to keep breakfast bars handy so that when were out and Gio especially gets hungry we have something healthy for him to eat. They "flavor" of the ones we purchased most recently were called super protien or something like that so now he calls all breakfast bars protien bars.
The fact that I had such a big impact on what he considered a desired treat didn't occur to me until today when he and I had lunch together and one of the things we had for desert were dried Goji berries. I just eat them when I think of it because they are good for me. The taste is O.K. but not something I crave. I had had my approximate teaspoonful and put the twisty back on the bag when he asked for more.
He now considers suckers a desired treat because it seems everybody and their brother wants to give him one of these dumb dum dum suckers. He has never tasted a sucker so really he only thinks they're good because every one keeps trying to give him one and acting like it's a big deal. I'm sure eventually he will get to taste one but I've been telling him his vitamins taste much better. I just don't see why everyone wants to pump children in general but my child especially full of sugar and artifical colors. Do they really need to give him a "treat"? Isn't positive attention enough? Just my thoughts.
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