Mother May I....NO you may not!!!

Last night while watching the news I saw a report that I just couldn't believe. Scientific studies now show Baby Einstein to be bad for babies. With the report came news that Disney the maker of Baby Einstein products is now offering refunds. They also interviewed some poor mom who now has to make the decision on whether or not to let her baby watch the Baby Einstein movies. I found the report to be interesting, so much so that I had actually stayed up to watch it. However I didn't think much about it. It was like, yes, to much TV is bad, but common people, don't we carry everything to far. Little did I know.

This morning while talking to a friend of mine, she was telling me about the same thing. She had seen a report, and it got her so worked up, that she in turn researched it out, and actually wrote about it on her blog. The story that she wrote, made me curious as well. So I did some digging myself. And what I found actually scares me.

Now let me just stop here in my story and say my children watch TV. They watch shows. Most have some sort of educational value to them. They reinforce things that they are already learning from me. Some of the TV that they watch does not have educational value, for example the Finding Nemo movie we rented last week. That was purely for entertainment. My four year old and my 16 month old will play computer games together. In these games they learn about different colors and concepts such as groupings and addition. I do not however set my children in front of the TV for hours at the time, just so that I don't have to provide entertainment or because I have something else to do. And I do not rely on someone or something else to teach my child the things that they need to know. THAT is MY choice. I have the choice. For now.

That is what has made me so mad. In this country we seem to be loosing more and more of our choices, not only as parents, but as citizens in general. What the H E double hockey sticks happened? I mean, wasn't this country founded on freedom?

I learned today about the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC.) And I couldn't believe what I found. Not only do I not agree with many of their claims, I find many of their ideas to be quite ridiculous. For example by putting the Harley Davidson brand on a bib, you are subconscious making them into die hard fans. You really need to read some of the information that they are putting out there.

To be fair its not so much their concepts that I disagree with. It is what they think causes them. America does not over eat because adds for fatty food on TV. We over eat because we have no control. The ads are there because we over eat, not the other way around. The thing that upsets me the most is that is not that all of their concepts are bad. I don't want my children watching things that are bad for them. But it is my choice. Just because I let my children watch Elmo does not make me a bad parent. I am the parent, not them. The more we let our freedoms and choices be taken away, the less control we have over our own lives. Soon they will be telling us that it isn't educational enough for children to be home schooled. I don't want to have to live with a "Mother may I" mentality, always having to ask permission to raise my children the way I see fit.