Our kids watch tv. Not a ton. But for sure they watch. Sometimes the television serves as a bit of a secret weapon buying me that 20 minutes of time when I can get one or two things that must be done, done. So for sure there are days when I fall back on the digital baby sitter. Thursdays, for example, when I get them home from swimming lessons and need a few moments to get dinner on the table. And Saturday mornings, when I just need a few minutes…
Our kids watch tv. That said, they don't encounter a lo of advertising. Or at least, i dont think they do. TVOntario is pretty remarkable – they run hours of kids programming every day with no advertising. And we are close enough to buffalo that, thanks to the digital antenna i installed on the roof, which I am a little bit proud of, that we can also get PBS – which means Hil and I get to watch Downton Abby and ruby can catch the occasional episode of sesame street. Again – public television so not asuch advertising. And then there is Netflix. Which at $8/month seems like pretty awesome value. And again, no adds.
Somehow or other though, all that stuff creeps in. This morning, as I was walking to the grocery store for the midweek re-up of milk and bananas, ruby nearly launched herself out of the stroller for no apparent reason. Turns out that she had noticed this inflatable Santa Claus on the roof of a local mechanic shop. I don't know how she saw it. We weren't walking past the mechanics – its partway down a side street off St. Clair. And we didn't have to wait at the crosswalk at that side street either. It wasn't as though we were just standing around looking for stuff to look at. Amd we havent really been talking that about Santa or Christmas at home. She just noticed it. I'm not sure if she knows what Santa is all about but I'm guessing that if she news able to notice him on a roof top down a side street as we were passing by on our way to do errands, she has also picked up on the not so subtle messaging as to just why Santa is plastered everywhere these days. Because she notices everything.
3 Ginger Snaps 