SOME of the most popular children’s TV shows could be encouraging naughtiness in your little ones.
That means the few minutes of peace you get to tick off some chores could be backfiring in the long-run, leading to more challenging behaviour to deal with.
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Fabulous spoke to Sophie Giles, parenting and behavioural consultant and founder of the Gentle Start Family Consultancy, about what to look for and which programmes you might want to restrict or address with your children.
She advises: “Ideally watch an episode yourself, because you can’t always rely on what Netflix or whoever says because they’re invested in getting you to watch it.
“So if it’s a big series and you think your child might get hooked, then it’s a good idea to watch an episode yourself just to make sure that there are no messages that you really don’t want your child getting.”
Sophie, who has worked with children for more than 20 years, warns that the popular series Bluey sends some fairly negative messages about family structure and normalises tantrums in response to parents’ simple requests.
She says: “In Bluey, for example, the daddy’s constantly being bullied because everybody calls him a bit silly, a bit stupid, a bit crazy, a bit whatever – nobody listens to him.
“He gets disparaged quite a lot in the show.
“He laughs about it, but actually, it doesn’t make for very pleasant watching as an adult.
“And the parents just do whatever the children want most of the time, which again, isn’t really real life.
“The children tend to have mini tantrums every time they’re asked to do something ‘boring’, which I suppose is real life, but again you don’t want to necessarily suggest that kind of behaviour to your child.”
The 5 kids’ TV shows that risk encouraging bad behaviour
- Bluey
- Little Princess
- Peppa Pig
- Fireman Sam
- PAW Patrol
The English version of the hit show Peppa Pig can also be criticised for its depiction of Daddy Pig, which may encourage children to adopt the same condescending tone towards their parents.
Sophie says: “It is interesting how incredibly patronising [the way Daddy Pig is spoken to] can be in the English version, how the characters stress that dialogue and how the director allowed that to happen.
“It can really skew what your child comes away with – and you know, kids love it!”
The behavioural expert believes PAW Patrol is another programme that’s guilty of gender skewing and stereotyping which leads to poor role modelling.
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She said: “If you look at PAW Patrol, there’s only one female character in it.
“She’s Skye and she’s dressed in pink and she’s a bit wussy in comparison to all of the other characters.
“Although children love it and soak it up, it’s maybe not the most helpful message. But it’s big for a reason.
“I would watch it with them but, as a parent, I would occasionally address it with them that girls can do important things too, girls don’t have to wear pink if they don’t want to, all that kind of stuff.”
For its portrayal of bratty behaviour, Little Princess also raises some red flags.
Sophie explains: “I quite like the books but I change the dialogue when I’m reading it to children who aren’t literate yet because there’s an awful lot of ‘I want’, no please or thank yous, and it’s quite rude and commanding.
“The cartoon’s similar. It has some interesting episodes about common things that children experience or may worry about, but actually, the Little Princess is a bit of a brat. Maybe not the best role model!”
Finally, the long-running classic, Fireman Sam, gets a word of warning.
Sophie says: “It’s not huge at the moment, but Norman seems to manage to set fire to something in every single episode.
“So if you want to encourage pyromania, that’s probably your show!”
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More on children stories, see how many dirty nappies is ‘normal’ to what a sleep schedule should REALLY look like – baby expert answers common Qs.
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