Parents - What Programs Have Been Banned At Your House?

[MrMon]

After my kids growing up watching pretty much anything on Nick, I had never found anything they watched really objectionable. Stupid, perhaps, but not objectionable. Recently my daughter, who's 11, has become infatuated with Hannah Montana on Disney. Fine, it's a cute show. But then she starts watching the other Disney shows. I catch them in the background and thought they were really a step down from Nick. Then, my 6 year-old son started watching them with her, so it was on more. And I started getting really annoyed, because I realized how horrible Disney programs were. That's it, except for Hannah Montana and High School Musical, no more Disney. The Mouse is Evil!

I was surprised at myself for doing this, but my wife concurrred. We talked about it, what was it that bothered us about the Disney programs. There's something about them that's different than Nick. Nick characters are just goofy, more real kid like, the adults aren't complete morons, and let's talk about stereotypes. The typical ABC/Disney kid is smart mouthed, act way too old for their age, smart girls are ugly, Asians are obsessed with "bling", blacks are always hip and urban, never academic except to make fun of nerds, rap music is everywhere, parents are fools to a degree way worse than Nick, etc., etc. I'm not demanding squeaky clean entertainment for my kids, but Disney live action shows for kids just suck.

So, anyone else banned their kids from something on the tube?

[Cry Me A River]

Starsky and Hutch was the only show banned in our house when I was growing up (afternoon re-runs, I was 12 or 13).

I have no idea why. My mom is kinda strange.

[youtalkfunny]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not demanding squeaky clean entertainment for my kids...

[/ QUOTE ]

Um, yes. You are.

Back when The Simpsons was huge, I knew a lady who banned her pre-teens from watching it, because Bart Simpson was a bad kid. His disrespect for parents and teachers was the big sticking point.

All could think was, "Overreact much?" As if her kids didn't see other kids act more disrespectful every day in real life.

Maybe I'm the wrong guy to give advice here, as I often let my kids watch/listen to things that I'm sure 99% of "responsible parents" would never dream of exposing to their children. But I can't imagine anyone thinking that their kids need to be "protected" from The Disney Channel.

[DING-DONG YO]

My daughter is only 4 months old, we we're a ways from this, but MTV and all its evil incarnations will not be allowed on the TV in my house. ever.

Not so much for the fact that it promotes sex and alcohol, etc. but more for the fact that it glorifies being a narcissitic self-absorbed tard devoid of any empathy.

and don't get me started on the additional negative effects I think it has on girls.

And technology will enable me to block it out.

[youtalkfunny]

I should add that I briefly considered banning "TeleTubbies" in my house when my kids were in diapers, because I was on to Tinky-Winky at least a year before that buffoon Falwell called him out. I didn't want my son to think it was good idea to play with a purse, or to put on a taffeta dress and dance around (these were Tinky-Winky's favorite things to do, and yes, Tinky-Winky was one of the male characters).

I let them watch the silly show. I just kept an eye out on my boy, planning to have a long talk with him if he started trying on dresses. Of course, he never did.

At least, not yet.

[DrewDevil]

I think reducing the amount of TV your kids watch is probably more important than monitoring the content (although obv. don't let 4 year olds watch knife-through-the-eyeball horror movies or gynecological porn).

[biakabutukafan]

I know many friends who weren't allowed to watch the Simpsons. For me it was basically Beavis and Butthead that was banned.

Don't tell my mom, but I watched it when she wasn't home. I know...I'm a rebel.

[gusmahler]

I banned shows that I considered too elementary for my daughter. E.g., I stopped letting her watch Barney or Teletubbies once she was talking because I thought they were too stupid for her.

She's now 6 and has self-banned several shows for the same reason. In fact, she has now decided not to watch any shows on Noggin because their slogan says something about being for preschoolers, and she considers herself to be too old for those shows now. Most of their shows suck, so I didn't complain.

That reminds me. Oobi. Hated that show. The characters all speak in incomplete sentences, basically a step over "baby talk." I never let her watch that after she started talking.

We generally don't let her watch Winnie the Pooh either. Those characters are severely disfunctional. Eeyore suffers from huge depression, Pooh has an eating disoreder, Tigger is hyperactive, Rabbit is OCD. Just not the kinds of characters we wanted her exposed to.

[jjshabado]

Banning programs almost never works (since you know they're going to watch it anyway). Its far better to actually talk about crap. I went through a phase when I was 11 or 12 reading Dungeon and Dragon books. My parents just told me to remember that magic and crap isn't real, blah blah blah.

The only show I remember being banned was Simpsons until I was around 10. But that was right at the start when it was pushing the envelope a bit.

[Ron Burgundy]

Things that were banned in my house as a kid:

- all console video game systems (they thought most games are violent and promoted the military)
- cable TV (they still don't have cable today)
- Married With Children
- SNL

My parents hate The Simpsons and think it's evil, but I didn't start watching it until I was about 16, so they couldn't stop me.