Remember Saturday morning cartoons? Remember waiting all week for your favorite show to finally arrive, hoping for a new episode of The Smurfs, or The Jetsons? Saturdays meant waking up early (on purpose), not waking your parents, creeping to the TV, turning on the one or two channels that had cartoons, grabbing a bowl of dry cereal, letting your parents sleep in (did I already mention that?), and plugging in to a few glorious hours of animation?Now we have The Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, KPBS, and DVR. In other words All Cartoons All the Time.
Surely it's up to me to monitor the TV intake, which I do. But having a couple of shows on every morning while I get ready/make breakfast/make lunches/do shots etc. is all too easy. But many days when I need that time to blog time to vacuum and prepare an exquisite meal, and I throw a show on, cartoons in all their ubiquitous glory have lost their appeal.
I know, back in the olden days there was no TV, or it was black and white, or it only had 3 channels. And kids played and used their imaginations. I'm all for that. I'm just sayin' -- remember when you looked forward to the hunky Handy Smurf? If you checked out my list of DVR'ed episodes you may see a handful of Oprah's and Extreme Makeover Home Editions, but the other 10,438 shows are kids shows which they can now watch ON DEMAND. Sheez. Even Dora is losing her appeal in my house (which ain't a bad thang.) I guess I'm going to have to get all original now and actually build Barbie houses out of Lincoln Logs, 'cause cartoons just don't cut it around here.
38 comments:
You are so right. Obviously we treasure more that which is rare.
Whatever you said made the older boy look, well, like he was "gonna get you" and the little one looked totally astonished. The cartoons used to have classical music AND make sense.
I totally hear you. We're all about DVDs at our house because I can moniter what's on and for how long. Cartoons just have lost their appeal.
I only let Blake watch 1 hr around nap time and another hour before dinner, but I can see that it is going to still wear down fast
WOW that was a long time ago. When TV did work as a babysitter. Now they want to go to Disneyland or Las Vegas or the spa for a mani, pedi... in a limo. Sheesh.
You mean my kids aren't supposed to watch TV all day?
What?
Thanks for the clear up!!!
(hee...heee)
That is too funny!
I wish I could get our kids to watch even a Disney movie.
No go.
Nope, my kids are up at 5:30 AM begging to go on a bike ride!!
This is a no win situation I tell you! :)
First of all.... I am REALLY sorry about your lips.... Ow-ie times 20, I'm sure.
TV.... ah yes.... do you know we don't have cable? No cable, but we have the digital tuner.
And my kids still watch too much....
I hope your little lips are healing and FAST!!!!
Now for the TV. MM would watch it every waking hour. I try (emphasize try) to reward her with TV. Some days she gets to watch more than others....I had a friend (not yet a mother type of friend) that said, "TV is fine as long as it is not a babysitter."
Well. Then. Fine. For you. You are childless. Let's have this convo AFTER you have kids.
Aaaah, those sahweet Saturday morning memories. I, too, loved Handy Smurf. And I adored Jem (truly outrageous, woooaaah, Jem). We used to sit 2 inches from the screen in order to hear it at my grandparents' house because we weren't allowed to make any noise. But it was worth it for that once a week goodness.
We don't have cable here and really only get one channel in clear and one in fuzzy. We tried turning on Saturday morning cartoons for LB a few months ago as a "treat"....we couldn't find them. There was Saturday morning news. Bummer.
It's times like that when I'm glad that Micah will watch the same movie until we can quote it verbatim. And then some.
I love our DVR.
Now, when we watch live TV, the kids ask to fast forward. ;)
This is so true. Especially with On Demand when they can watch anything at anytime.
I remember being at slumber parties and waking up to watch cartoons in the morning in our sleeping bags.
Thanks for your kind words on my blog.
Did someone say the Smurfs? I L-O-V-E-D the blue short folk. LOVED THEM.
Kidding.
Sorta.
Not.
I will have to agree.
Saturday morning cartoons were the highlight of my week.
My kids have no concept of once a week cartoons.
I think cartoons are so readily available my kids are bored of them now.
I am ALL FOR TV helping out now and then with keeping the kiddos occupied - ALL FOR IT!!
Have a good Wednesday - see you - Kellan
I was trying to explain the Saturday morning cartoon thing to my kids the other day - they just didn't get it.
It's such a shame.
Ah, memories! I LOVED Saturday morning cartoons! My son, on the other hand, only knows that cartoons exist from 4-5pm on weekdays on PBS. So he can't wait for Monday to come so he can watch Arthur.
Okay...so I'm going to show my age here and say that, puh-lease?? The Smurfs?!?! In college, my friends and I used to watch them drunk and make our own dialogues...was fun with Mexican soap operas too!!
I remember The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show...7:00, every Saturday morning...and then Scooby Doo at 8:00. My boys love them too, so they really look forward to coming to the States...for that and SpongeBob!!! :-D
I loved both cartoons. The picture of your boys is way cute!
Nice use of the the word "ubiquitous"! Way to go!
The cartoons today kinda suck. We TiVo the ones we don't mind him watching. I wish I had Noggin as part of our cable package. Fortunately, my little one is just as happy with Animal Planet as with cartoons so he watches that most often.
We're pretty strict with TV time during the week so we can sleep in a little on Saturday mornings.
I practically forced my 9 year old son to watch Flinstones last weekend. Just because I'm so effing tired of Spongebob. I figure if they're going to watch something, I should be able to stand hearing it sometimes.
He loved it.
Fortunately, both of my kids have learned to turn off the TV on their own (even when I haven't insisted) and to go do other things.
I totally forgot just how hot Handy Smurf is. Mwar!
You are sooo right, I think cartoon overload has killed any special they used to have.
While I agree 100%, I would kill for my kiddo to move on to any of those - just anything but Seasame Street! I've about had it with Big Bird and Everything Elmo.
Cute blog! Found you through OHMommy!
I hear ya! Back in the day I would be outside from sun up until sun down by myself, and at a really young age. Now parents have to be ever present. I don't even let my kids play in the backyard (no fence)without me. So what else are we supposed to do when we really have to get stuff done? Tv it is!
I'm so sick of the Disney Channel reruns that I'd almost rather hear them fighting over one more Hannah Montana song.
Notice I said "almost."
We're into PBS shows here. As soon as we get home, my daughter asks for "Mirabelle" "elephant" while it's cute, we've only got about 4 episodes DVR'd!!!
Every Saturday morning, I STILL click on the ABC, CBS, and NBC to see what the Sat morning cartoons are......they are not even that many that I would even let the kids watch! PBS...yes, but that is about it! LOL
Do you remember the after school specials....?
I don't even know what "Saturday Morning Ubiquity" is since we (meaning I, not daddy) have never allowed Diego to watch morning cartoons. Daddy and Diego watch truck shows and Animal Planet.
I grew up with no cable until I was fourteen and then my dad changed his mind shortly after seeing what was on MTV at the time, which meant we got 6 months of TV bliss. We (my sister and I) thought he was SO unfair!
But I have read too many negative things about TV watching, especially with boys, that I decided before Diego was born that he would have no TV exposure until after two and even after that, very limited.
Lucky for him though, he spends three days a week with his Abuelita, who lets him watch cartoons and movies, etc. So he is really not missing out on the TV world. I'm just (apparently) missing out on Saturday morning sleep. : )
I remember those days all to well.
I've been trying to limit our t.v. watching, it can get excessive.
My kids somehow stumbled across an old Tom and Jerry and you don't realize until watching them again as a mom how violent they are. But I kept laughing my butt off. Then I was looking for a reason to justify the show not being so bad and I was all, "at least there's classical music."
Yea we are kind of strick with what are kids are going to watch. And LOVE the look on your little boys face. So intense :)
SpongeBob is TV crack. Doesn't matter how many times they have seen an episode they will watch it again. He is my saving grace around here which is why there are no fewer than 10 episodes of his on the DVR on any given day.
Oh the smurfs--that was on Boomerang; I tried to get my kids to watch it but all they want is Jonas Brothers or Top Chef--I speak of my daughters of course; the boys just watch 'Cars' on the Mac ;)
I remember
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