Combatting Commercial Influences Already

Jack and I had this conversation in the grocery store this morning:

Momma: Hmmmm... what kind of waffles should we get, Jack?

Jack: I wan de Cookie Monster ones.

Momma: Seriously? That's already starting? How old are you?

Jack: I am two, Momma! (as if I had asked him the silliest, most obvious question ever)

Momma: (before looking at the nutritional information and content) Honey, I'm not sure that the Cookie Monster ones would taste very good. You might not like them, even though they have Cookie Monster on the box.

Jack: Dey will! De Cookie Monster wattles WILL taste yumdee.

Momma: (with relief, discovering that Sesame Street has at least some scruples about what foods it associates itself with, as the first ingredient is whole wheat, there's no corn syrup, the preservatives are minimal, and it's even organic) You know what, these are a good for you green light food. Let's get them.

Jack: (very seriously, as if I had just learned something very important from him) Yeth. Dey will taste yumdee. An dey are a greee ligh foo.

I felt vaguely as if I was in a PBS TV ad.

And I made a note to myself to remember The Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood in our annual end of the year giving.

As a side note, pressure from that organization, the CCFC, has led to Disney offering full refunds to anyone who has bought a Baby Einstein DVD in the past 5 years. A few years ago the CCFC filed an FTC complaint that led to Disney withdrawing their (completely unscientific) claims that their DVDs were "educational" for babies, and this is just a further, but incredibly impressive, extension of that admission. Turns out studies now show that though educational TV can be helpful (in some environments, very helpful) to development in preschoolers, any screen media time (including so-called educational DVDs for babies) is actually harmful to infant and toddler development. Plus they're mind numbingly boring--the Baby Einstein videos are just strings of 5 second clips of toys and household objects in motion, things most babies would see and be interested in in real life but not in 2D on a screen. The American Association of Pediatrics recommends no TV time at all for children under two, yet American infants (children under 12 months) watch an average of an hour of TV a day. Check the first CCFC link for information on how to return DVDs.