I had thought watching Sapient Trains Are A Really Terrible Idea with my son was bad, but yesterday I got a taste of World’s Worst Contractors and, whoo boy. Why is this stuff on PBS Kids?
36 thoughts on “I had thought watching Sapient Trains Are A Really Terrible Idea with my son was bad, but yesterday I got a taste of…”
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There’s a lot of legitimately terrible messaging wrapped up in appealing packaging aimed at kids. Sofia the First is our hated show here.
Sofia the First is our hated show here.]]>
I thought Sofia was all about how princesses can do anything a prince can do and stuff like that? I have a boy, so I’ve only ever seen like 2 episodes
Aaron Griffin yeah it is but also a heavy dose of classism.
but also a heavy dose of classism.]]>
Yeah, there’s some serious blind spots in Sofia. Like, they have episodes about thinly-veiled racism and classism metaphors, but at the same time the characters are waited on hand and foot by nameless servants.
One day you’ll get the relief of “Phineas & Ferb”
What drives me extra nuts is that most of the shows I’ve seen could all be summed up by a single 10 minute film called Things Will Go Wrong If You Can’t Follow Basic Instructions. Seriously, that’s the plot of every damn episode.
Things Will Go Wrong If You Can’t Follow Basic Instructions. Seriously, that’s the plot of every damn episode.]]>
Are you talking about Thomas and Bob? Because I hate those two shows!
The thing that gets on my nerves the most is how one or the other character always makes a mess (and does what in real world would be huge damage!), and it all sums up in “sorry, I learned the lesson!” and “It’s all ok now, don’t worry, we’ll justmake it right”. And I as a father am all “What the..? Come on! That’s not how you make a child understand what he did wrong! Also, they’ll just do the same next time!” :/
Worst offender here is Norman from Fireman Sam. God, what I’d do to him xD
huge damage!), and it all sums up in “sorry, I learned the lesson!” and “It’s all ok now, don’t worry, we’ll justmake it right”. And I as a father am all “What the..? Come on! That’s not how you make a child understand what he did wrong! Also, they’ll just do the same next time!” :/ Worst offender here is Norman from Fireman Sam. God, what I’d do to him xD]]>
“Sapient Trains” could also include Chuggington, which is even worse than modern Thomas. The older Thomas stuff (when it was still being based on the stories) can be charming, but jeez the British classism.
Patrick Marchiodi Yup! Ditto the idea that Sodorites put up with being late for work all the time because, I dunno, Tomas decided he wanted to go visit the forest instead of doing his job. Or how Bob must be hemorrhaging money given that, I assume, every single job he does goes over bid because either a worker or a sapient bulldozer screws something up.
The whole sapient machines thing kinda bugs me, too. I mean, I get that it’s more profitable to sell trains or trucks with faces and names, but this whole idea of dangerous machines you’re supposed to empathize with is bizarre to me. One episode of Bob had a steamroller playing with a cat, and all I could think was, “That cat is going to get killed.” (The steamroller does roll over the cat’s house, though. “Oops!” OMFG.)
There was a moment in Bob when he started talking about different wall fasteners, and I thought, “Oh, okay, so this is where we teach kids a bit about carpentry and tools,” but, no, it was just some color and never came up again.
Anthony Hersey Oh, I saw an episode of Chuggington once. Tomas was like AMC compared to that.
For the record, I let my kid watch maybe 30 minutes of TV a week. It’s usually spending Saturday morning with an episode of Mister Roger’s Neighborhood — the best kid’s show, period, IMO — but sometimes we do Daniel Tiger, which is pretty good. But, every once in a while (like this weekend) my son is inconsolable, and so we watch a bit more, and I let him pick from the menu on the PBS Kids app.
Mister Roger’s Neighborhood — the best kid’s show, period, IMO — but sometimes we do Daniel Tiger, which is pretty good. But, every once in a while (like this weekend) my son is inconsolable, and so we watch a bit more, and I let him pick from the menu on the PBS Kids app.]]>
How old is he?
I also get that these are the opinions of a grown-up watching a show for little kids, but honestly, I feel like there’s a huge difference between “this is for little kids” and “this is fundamentally idiotic”.
Patrick Marchiodi He’ll be 2 in December.
Mark Delsing there for sure is a difference! As a fellow parent I absolutely advise you evaluate his shows that way, too.
I agree: there are some good kids shows and some bad kids shows. And there is also more than one way a show can be good or bad
Paul Beakley Totally.
Another thing I love about Mister Rogers is that it’s one of the few shows that is not trying to sell my kid anything.
Oh if he’s that young, there’s Yo Gabba Gabba, although not to be found on PBS Kids.
Can’t go wrong with Fred Rogers, though.