Mom! I Need That!
When I was a kid, we watched the commercials. It was a part of television. We used the commercials as a bathroom break, or sometimes we saw something we liked and begged our parents for it. Occasionally, they would buy it for us. While the toys almost never lived up to their hype, we still felt a small victory when we opened that packaging.
Our children today have a different kind of television viewing experience. They watch commercial free satellite tv, movies downloaded onto our iPods, and anything they do watch that has commercials, we fast forward right through them. I don’t feel like my child watches a ton of television, I am not saying she doesn’t watch any television or anything, but she doesn’t watch too much.
In fact, my family has pretty much stopped watching real television. We have been watching a lot of downloaded TV along with the occasional recorded shows here and there. So, we decided to cancel our big fancy Verizon FiOS television box, and just go for something cheaper. We got Dish Network and the basic package, and we thought we could get by with just the regular cable channels. But, guess what, Nickelodeon isn’t commercial free!
My daughter got sick, so that meant watching a LOT of television. She was feeling pretty much too lousy to do anything, so I let her watch everything and anything she wanted to. And that meant LOADS of commercials. Since my kid never really watches commercials that means she wants EVERYTHING on the television.
And not just sort of wants it either, I mean like scream out loud, “I WANT! I WANT THAT MOM! I NEED IT NOW!” At first it was endearing. Awww, my kid has discovered commercials. But, now I am just upset with the whole situation. I mean WOW! How can they play on kids like that. Sigh… no wonder they advertising people hate TiVo so much.
That is why Disney and PBS get watched more often in our house. During Playhouse Disney and PBS Kids they only advertise their own shows between programs. I hate the commercials on Nickelodeon. My boys will say they want everything they see for their birthday. Thankfully they forget it once the TV is turned off.
We watch mostly downloaded stuff too. No commercials in Maisy, Blue’s Clues, or Theodore Tugboat. I love it — I always thought children’s commercials were the worst of the worst in commercial land.
But I admit, I sometimes enjoy commercials, if they are funny and well done. So I watch them on You Tube.
Oh, I hope your daughter is better now. I know what you mean about commercials. I actually have some favs that crack me up, but those that sell stuff to kids are a huge problem in my house too. Alexis runs to get paper to write down all the information and phone numbers and release dates and websites – eeeeeeek!
Can’t wait to hear more about your new ya novel – so excited for you!
Talk to you soon – Kellan