Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood: Bane of our Existence!

PBS is safe for kids, right? Well that’s what we thought. Typically we only allow the kids to watch certain shows. We don’t have cable, so access is very limited with our Apple TV or Hulu. Right now the 3 kids are hooked on “Odd Squad” which is a great adventure and problem solving show. Paley first saw this show at school during a rainy day activity. Or at least that’s what I was lead to believe when, later that week an advertisement was placed in their school folders for the show. “Sesame Street” is certainly a major staple in our weekly routine but we have explored with shows like “Martha Speaks” and “Word Girl”. We’ve dabbled with a few different shows but we haven’t seen the overall positive reinforcement with shows like “Curious George” or “Arthur”. Now these are just my personal opinion. 

Then you run into a show like “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood”. The show is a spin-off from “Mr Roger’s”. Daniel Tiger was a one of the animal puppets that lived in his Neighborhood of Make-Believe. This very new, it started broadcasting back 2012 when the twins were born. Right after Christmas, we were exhausted, all of us recovering from stomach flu. As parents we let our guard down and allowed the kids to watch whatever they want on PBS Kids. This proved to be a poor decision. The kids watch just ONE “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” and what we were left with is kitty kat who is still living with us 7+ months later. 

Margot watched just one episode and as a result she became a little kitty kat. She took on all the mannerisms of the cat, the meowing, the licking, the crawling, you name it. A friend of ours had the same problem with her child and she made me realized that Daniel’s program was the culprit. Her child shook off the kitty behavior after a few months. Around month 3, I was getting a little worried. I put  my worry of the behavior on the back burner for a few weeks and most recently I had noticed the daily visit from the kitty was less frequent. If any word describing said kitty arose, she would revert back to her old kitty ways. So for now we are refraining from using said word and our fingers crossed the kitty is gone soon. Let’s just say there is no chance in the world we are getting a cat anytime soon. 

As for Daniel Tiger’s tv show. Parents of little one’s, BEWARE!!!!!