Kids Cartoons Make Me Cranky

So clearly based on the headline of today’s post, I let my kids watch TV. Sometimes I wonder if I let them watch too much TV – especially in the morning – but what can you do. A gal needs to survive and I don’t subscribe to mommy guilt. So while I’m confessing to letting my kids watch TV, I feel compelled to confess that I DESPISE some of the cartoons my eldest daughter LOVES.

And sometimes her top favorite show choices concern me.

Why does she love, for example, Max & Ruby? Why, God, why? Is it to punish me for regularly forgetting to go to Church? Is it because she wants to live in a parent-less house and boss around her sibling around the clock? Is it because she feels her grandmother is the only adult presence in her life? Is it because she thinks Ruby is likeable? Because Ruby is not likeable. She’s not even tolerable.

Truth be told: I can’t stand Ruby. She is bossy, preachy, annoying and bratty.

Wait.

Maybe I am like Ruby?

Could it be? Could I be successfully  making my child’s TV watching habits about ME?

I might be.  But writing this post actually prompted me to do a little online digging about the whereabouts of Max & Ruby’s parents and much to my amusement, I learned that there used to be an internet rumor that Max & Ruby’s parents were killed by Farmer McGregor. Have I mentioned how much I love internet rumors??

Anyhow, apparently their parents are deliberately absent because kids are meant to learn the lesson that they can work things out themselves.

Really show creators? Cause that lesson escapes me entirely, so my kid is meant to pick up on this very subtle lesson? We are all too busy being suffocated by Ruby and her attitude….

And then there’s the Berenstain Bears. A classic. A decades-long beloved classic.

I HATE THIS CARTOON.

I don’t mind the books. Really, I don’t. I get that there are valuable lessons woven through these books. But the cartoon – can’t stand it and my daughter actively seeks the cartoons out regularly. Why is Mama Bear the only one with a moral compass? Why is Papa Bear a useless thug of a man-cub? Is this family supposed to be reflective of a real family? Are sister bear’s and brother bear’s names as stupid as some of the latest and worst celebrity baby names? (Bing Bellamy – Kate Hudson’s new son?  Kase – Jewel’s new son?)

Why don’t they have names? I secretly snickered as I read one of the books where one of the kids made fun of Sister’s name – cause why wouldn’t they make fun of it? And why does Mama Bear incessantly need to be teaching each of them how to do the right thing, starting with her idiotic husband? Again, like Ruby, Mama Bear is so preachy and self-righteous. Why can’t she live a little?

So imagine my surprise and delight when I stumbled upon the Facebook Page “Is Mama Bear Bipolar?” I felt a true kindred spirit with the page’s founder upon reading the first sentence of the group description:

• Word Girl. She’s cool and smart.
• Any celebrity sighting in Sesame Street, especially Will.I.Am’s empowering and sweet song “What I Am” 
• Phineas and Ferb, of course, because they’re creative, up to no good, and there’s a random platypus (but again, enter a moderately annoying and preachy older sister – what is that about, people?)

Could there be something wrong with me that I loathe shows woven with positive moral lessons and that encourage independence? For more talk of being bossy and offing preachy bunnies, be sure to “Like” the Wired Momma Facebook page.