If your children are partial to Peppa Pig then you may be interested in this article from the Daily Mail Is Peppa Pig making toddlers naughty?. My husband and I spotted it this morning and seeing that we have an avid follower of all things Peppa in this house, we thought we would take a closer look.
The subject of what you let your kids watch is always one that people pay attention to and as parents we are extremely aware of the impact that television can have on our children. It is easy to assume that some people simply plonk their children in front of the television to act as a babysitter and it’s certainly worrying to think that some children may be spending most of their days glued to the box. We have always not had to worry too much with Beastie with regards to watching programmes, from an early age he wasn’t remotely bothered with the tv, whereas I knew some Mum’s that were already placing their children in front of baby channels so that they could get on with chores. Fast forward a few months and he developed an interest in In the Night Garden and soon all the characters were his new cuddly/noisy friends.
I will sometimes have the tv on in the background and Beastie will not pay any attention to it until one of his ‘programmes’ begins to start. He will then run over to the sofa to get all comfortable and give his undivided attention to it. One of these programme’s happens to be Peppa Pig. When kids were going crazy at the opening of Peppa Pig World, Beastie was yet to find out what all the fuss was about, somewhat a late starter in this department he is now as hooked as I would say the majority of toddlers in the country.
We have loved watching his fascination grow with Peppa Pig and for him to truly develop a favourite character for him to relate to. After all that’s one of the fun parts of being a kid and letting your imagination run away with you.
We only spoke the other day about how we have noticed some sayings that Beastie comes out with are in fact from Peppa Pig, even down to the tone of his voice and the way he projects it. Mostly they are ordinary polite phrases and statements, more endearing than naughty I would say. However, yesterday we went out for a meal and whilst tucking into his ice cream, Beastie kept shouting ‘it’s disgusting’. Clearly it wasn’t disgusting as he was happily demolishing the contents of the bowl but we think that it may have come from watching the tv and it certainly sounds like something that maybe Peppa or George might say. He was saying it loud and he is at an age where he will say things at the most inappropriate times and places. Are we to blame letting him get absorbed in Peppa Pig? are the makers of Peppa Pig not being careful enough about what the story lines entail? I can see the issue here but he was simply reciting what he had heard but didn’t have it in the right context. That doesn’t make it right but then aren’t we as parents supposed to be teaching our children what is right and wrong anyway?
I find some of the points raised in the article a little ridiculous, like the fact a parent has complained about their child jumping in muddy puddles because that is what Peppa Pig does. That is what children have done for donkeys years and you can hardly label this bad behaviour when this is a particularly well known past time of all children! I would say Peppa Pig is portraying real life pursuits. Some also complain that their children are replying in a really high and mighty way. Peppa Pig wasn’t around when I was a child and I know that I was a little stroppy to say the least.
It seems that parents will be quick to blame material that is shown on the tv for their misbehaved children. Where in fact there are many situations that a child will encounter that will affect their behaviour such as nursery, school and contact with other kids. I am not saying that I wholeheartedly agree with all of the content on Peppa Pig but after all it is portraying childish behaviour that our children relate to. I will be interested to see whether there is more written about this in the press or whether it will blow over like most articles do that are telling us yet again something is bad for us…
I think that like anything as long as it is in moderation it’s ok- we say Mads loves Peppa and have bought her some books and a cuddly toy but to be honest at the moment she isn’t fussed if the TV is on or not- she would rather cause mischief elsewhere! x
We love Peppa Pig in our house too! Its not on all day or anything so I agree a little in moderation is ok. Children pick things up but its all too easy to blame TV for everything these days. I think parents have to take some responsibility for their children’s behaviour too! xx
There are MANY worse things than Peppa Pig on TV. I think is is pretty harmless. It makes me laugh when you read things like children are wanting chocolate cake for breakfast because thats what Peppa and George have it. Its a cartoon for goodness sake. Imagine what Ben 10 teaches children 🙂 ( not that we watch that of course )
We are big fans of Peppa in this house. I can’t believe that it really contributes to naughty behaviour, I think it is easy to scape goat bad behaviour for things they see, and that is when parents should step in to correct what they don’t like. I do agree that children are like sponges but then they could easily pick up a phrase from adults talking in the kitchen, pre-school and other children and other programmes. x