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With the news that Disney is offering refunds for their Baby Einstein videos, parents may be more willing to keep their babies and toddlers away from the set. If they need more motivation, I suggest reading the book, The Big Turnoff: Confessions of a TV-Addicted Mom Trying to Raise a TV-Free Kid (Algonquin 2007) by Ellen Currey-Wilson. It’s inspiring and hilarious (better than your favorite sit-com), and sure to make any parent think twice about using the electronic baby sitter. The author also wrote a great piece about Baby Einstein videos a couple of years ago when the controversy was just beginning.

You can contact Ellen Currey-Wilson at ecurreywilson@gmail.com or visit her website.

Cheers!

Sally Pogue (a TV-free parent, or at least I was when my kids were little!)

While demonizing Baby Einstein does create headlines, it also obscures the important fact that the research on "baby TV" is not so black and white. The research now shows what parents have known for a long time...the CONTENT MATTERS. The research also indicates that actively watching along with your baby, commenting, narrating and engaging your child can also have a positive effect.

As the creators of eebee's adventures, an award-winning line of developmental toys, books, and yes, TV and DVDs that have been dubbed the "un-Baby Einstein" by the press because of our play and discovery-based curriculum, we are eager to learn more about what makes sense for parents and babies in the screen-centric world in which we live. We know that babies are playing along with each "adventure" and that parents and siblings are engaging babies with eebee songs and activities when the TV is off. Assuming moderation in tv-viewing, we think these are good things--actively engaged babies and caregivers.

We also think that while it's essential that we are all critical consumers, especially when it comes to our kids, that--dare we say it--we don't throw the baby out with the bath water." www.eebee.com/blog

please please please ask WHEN are New Yorkers going to get their weekends back??? We can't travel without extreme difficulties most weekends.

no acknowledgement in the media thus far of how much inconvenience the weekend outages on the subway have been.

could that be because it doesn't affect the "right" constituencies?

would hope public radio NOT making that calculation??

john i agree it was a cheap shot -- but unfortunately cheap is what the market has pegged what a legitimate criticism of bush is worth.

to be fair to bush, he did say that he had political capital and he was going to use it...

I'm waiting for a researcher to tell parents that the best thing to do is use their own common sense (not someone else's), trust their instincts (not someone elses's), and relax (and if that means watching a video with your baby, by all means enjoy!)

Two quick things:

1. My nieces sang such pieces at very young ages because we sang them to them and played actual performances for them on CD. The idea that you have to plop an infant in front of a TV to gain these benefits is a sham and a cop-out.

2. I'm waiting for a researcher to connect too-early exposure to television to the rise in autism-spectrum conditions---remember that infant brains are still developing to learn how to integrate stimuli. How does staring at a lighted video monitor affect development?

Thanks.

Brian, another cheap shot at Bush. Your listeners are fixated on the man. HA HA lets laugh a Bush like children.

Oh get off your high horse - parenting is tough work and the occasional video or TV is not going to turn a kid into a vegetable or a criminal. Lighten up.

I am an early childhood educator, and was taught that CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF TWO SHOULD NOT WATCH TV AT ALL!!! I'm waiting for Baby Einstein to get called out on that.

Parents actually fell for this are just gullible in general..jeez

The guy who jumped into the subway wasn;t homeless, was he?

If you want your kid to know classical music you don't need to pay Disney Corporation! Put on WQXR, simple!

BTW, any parent who says they never let their infant or toddler watch TV is lying. The American Academy of Pediatrics can lump it. Half of them don't have kids anyway.

We were given what I think was the original VIDEO in 2000-2001, maybe before Disney had purchased the co. Never expected much of it, except as a babysitter, and it was CHEESY and why not just play REAL CLASSICAL MUSIC? It served to hypnotize us and our child and those tinkly versions of Mozart stuck in our heads and driving us INSANE!

For anyone who actually believed that these would make their child a genius, their child doesn't stand a chance due to the lack of parental influence. They could probably use the money.

Baby Einstein is way for parents not to feel guilty about letting a video distract their kid like a pseudo-babysitter.

So, the CDs (music) are fine. Correct?

hysterical comments above!!

seems like a good moment to say this related observation: sesame street has definitely taught my now 2 yr old a lot. not smarter, necessarily, but gives her more to do with her smarts, ie, learn. for example, her first visit to a farm at 1.5 yrs old and she already could identify all the animals. thanks to books but mostly sesame street.

Come on, the products are entertainment! What is this??!!

I never understood the popularity of the Baby Einstein videos, or any of the baby videos. Everything I've ever read says that children under two should not be watching any television. At best, it can over stimulate them (particularly under age one), and at worst can be damaging.

I would think the same parents who were wanting their children's education to be jump started would be the same parents who would be familiar with this fact.

Both my kids were big Baby Einstein fans and I never treated them as anything but entertainment, never expected they would turn my kid into "geniuses", and do not recall Baby Einstein ever CLAIMING these products would turn my kid into a genius. What a truly idiotic concept, both for the company and for any "disappointed" parent. I mean really?! A DVD is going to turn your kid into a genius?! Give me a break!

Oh come on! This is nothing but a brilliant market stragegy by Disney. Who is going to admit their baby is a dolt! Certainly not I... my baby is a genius and -egads- she watches NO TV or videos whatsoever!!

Who is going to admit to that? "Yeah, I used Baby Einstein and my kid is dumb as a box of rocks."