My kids have never seen a normal television program — so far they’re only experience with TV is when they get to watch the occasional Disney movie (the old ones are the best!). My husband and I are both against commercials and the consumerism that is directed toward children (not to mention, the stuff on TV these days is nothing to write home about). So, for my kids, it was Disney movies or nothing … until they discovered Scooby Doo!
Scooby Doo was my husband’s favourite cartoon as a child (can you believe it has been around since 1969?), and so when my kids stumbled upon Scooby Doo in a hotel room recently, we caved in and let them watch it. Of course they LOVED it and haven’t stopped talking about it since (what’s not to like about men in monster suits, a talking dog, and a group of friends solving mysteries?!). We recently bought the Scooby-Doo, Where are you! DVD which has the entire first and second seasons of Scooby Doo. I must say, we’ve spent a few rainy summer nights watching the shows and they’re so fun! The whole family (including grandparents!) gets into them. We’re talking about good, honest, old-fashioned mysteries solved each time by a silly dog and his crime-fighting friends.
x Courtney
Comments (17)
A blast from the past! LOVE Scooby Doo, but only the old ones before that Scrappy Doo character turned up. DVDs are definitely the way forward. We have a no screen rule until 2 and then after that DVDs only. Thomas the Tank Engine, Paddington Bear and Mr Benn are all favourites here. We’ll definitely be looking into the Scooby Doo DVDs, thanks for the tip!
Love Scooby Doo!
oh i just tried to buy it on amazon uk but they dont have it! we’ll have to borrow it from you! we all love scoobydoobydoo in the family! thanks and hope you’re having a wonderful time in america xx
Vanessa,
Do you want me to buy it for you in the US? I’m here for another week! Let me know!
x
TV on demand is brilliant – cuts out all the commercials, and you get to choose the shows your kids watch and when (and its free!). We love ‘something special’ with Mr Tumble and ‘3rd and Bird’ – there are some good shows out there. Oh and youtube is brilliant too for things like Sesame Street or we just search for cute kitten videos etc!
The best thing I did was get rid of cable television when my second son was born. My sons only watch dvd’s or series purchased from appletv. I do not want advertisement and commercials telling my family what to do and buy. When we go on vacation, we usually get cable tv, and the boys are fascinated by it. They love to watch the tv and it is part of the vacation. I watch it too, and then I am so glad we do not have cable tv at home. The boys are of age where we discuss the issues of advertising and the low brow content of tv, and how it is important to be critical of what we watch.
The boys loved the old Scooby Do too, but they are well past that age now! I remember those days fondly!
Scooby Do is a classic!
BBC have some wonderful programming for children with no advertisements which I find is completely age appropriate for my 5 year old girls. We love the classics, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty bang bang etc. They did watch Scooby Doo with my 8 year old nephew and found it very scary so I am afraid no scooby doo in our house yet.
We LOVE Mary Poppins! And I have to buy Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I forgot all about that one. Thanks for the tips!
x
We also love the classic movies and cartoons. Pink Panther is another family hit, as well as the “Once upon a time” cartoons (“Il était une fois… l’Homme” it revisits history from the big bang until the mid 70s or so; it was a French-origin but European co-production and it is great!!!). My problem is that, despite the minimum TV rule up to now (mainly DVDs), you cannot control them that easily when they are at the grandparents’ or in friends’ houses and they get absolutely absorted by TV whenever it is on…
Carmen,
I forgot all about The Pink Panther series! I have to re-discover that.
And yes, I agree with you about the problem of TV at friends’ houses or grandparents’ houses, etc. It’s so difficult to monitor what our children see unless you’re with them ALL the time. I wish there was an easy solution. Maybe just asking the grandparents not to turn the TV on? Or is that too radical? I don’t know…
My two LOVE Scooby Doo, as I did when I was the same age. So much in fact that we’re dressing up as the whole gang for Halloween this year 🙂
Looney Tunes, Scooby Doo, the Smurfs – I loved the old-school shows! (I still do:) They are far more wholesome and age-appropriate than the kid programs of today.
Hi Courtney, my boys are also watching scoobidoo they got as a christmas present the whole collection box. Hours of fun. They also love inspector gadget and indeed the pink panter. Our philosofy is that tv/dvd time is limited and supervised. But we think you have to live in this day and age and all you can do as parents give your children the tools to deal with the overload of products & advertisement. With facebook, twitter, google etc., in reality all targetting our shopping behaviour and trying to tap into all this information to sell us stuff (guess very usefull for babyccino even;-)), we agreed have twe o give our two boys the tools and knowledge to deal with this and not want everything they see, not completely shelter them from it, but have to agree less is better!
Love Scooby Doo and even had a dog named Scooby when I was little. The babes love the show too. Except it’s given my eldest a new host of terrors to creep him out. When I suggested going to British Museum recently, 5YO burst into tears because he didn’t want to see the mummies!
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