YouTube = UsTube, Clips You And Your Kid Will Love
Well, TV isn't bad, per se. We are big fans of it in our house. As a matter of fact I know I have precisely thirteen minutes to finish writing this uninterrupted because the second half of Curious George just started. This is one of the shows that my two-year old and I love to watch together. Have you watched it? It is addicting. There does not seem to be a big difference between a toddler and "Monkey George" as he is called around here. The other great show we love, besides Sesame Street of course, is The WonderPets. It is so refreshing. It reminds me of the old Bugs Bunny or Tom and Jerry shows (which, I admit, we have also watched a smattering of) with the excellent music and animal hijinx. Recently, while confined to bed rest, we had to get creative for additional sedentary entertainment which we did, thank you very much, but then...I turned on the laptop and my son discovered YouTube and I revisited my own childhood.
Do you remember the great Sesame Street classics such as The Alligator King or the Lady Bug Picnic? Great for counting and short attention spans (my own). I cried with nostalgia. And then there is the classic Me and My Llama (who has a pet llama, in New York City, AND takes it to a dentist in a cab?) and A Loaf of Bread, a Container of Milk and A Stick of Butter, a very early exposure to an African American family. But the one I love the most, and my son too, the one that introduced me to my favorite opera, Carmen, at the tender age of two myself, is, the stop-motion animation Opera Singing Orange. If you want to get the complete nostalgic experience, include commercials- you can throw in the Crying Indian, I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke, and a local New York classic PSA "We're Not Candy" (supposed to make kids NOT like pills, I knew they weren't candy but could my moms aspirins talk and sing?). Incidentally, for more exposure to great music, check out BBC's Peer Gynt game. Your toddler will love chasing the trolls while he learns about what instruments are being played during the famous piece "Hall of The Troll King." Beware, this may lead to an obsession with Trolls, Troll Kings and trying to capture them. Thanks, Pop-pop.
YouTube has is dangers as well. Be careful when you search "Bert and Ernie"- you may get a dubbing over of Joe Pesci and Robert DeNiro's famous scene from Casino. While hilarious, and well done, not entirely appropriate for a two year old who repeats everything he hears. And even though I am a white woman, I do love to hear the occasional 50 Cent (great soundtrack for bathroom cleaning) so I, for one thoroughly enjoyed the Thomas The Tank Engine v.50 Cent. Another danger is that there really is EVERYTHING on YouTube. So if your kid is currently obsessed with something, say baby geckos, or pandas, you WILL spend hours watching baby geckos, including the GEICO commercials, and every single Chinese family's vacation videos of pandas doing- or not doing - all kinds of stuff.
Do I feel guilty for putting my kid in front of the computer or TV? No way- even though I just replayed Curious George so I can finish writing this. TV and YouTube is something special, something that we do together and share our mutual excitement over. I won't be shamed into thinking TV and computers are so bad. This is "our thing." Of course, right now, everything is "our thing" the poor boy has no idea what's in store for him when Baby Sister gets here; neither do I for that matter, I just hope we can still have any moments alone together with YouTube or not.
