Hope doesn’t normally get to watch TV … when we were in America a friend sat her infront of the Disney channel from time to time and she enjoyed singing along to the songs, but wasn’t bothered when they were switched off, she ran outside singing to herself and didn’t look back. From time to time, she watches Strictly Come Dancing with the Stars with my mother and enjoys copying the dancing and the music and she claps along with the audience. That’s been the extent of it. I have figured that there’s enough to learn from interacting with the real world and what’s around her than having to deal with yet more on the TV or just sit slack mouthed staring at it. Hope is normally always so busy doing things or drawing or dancing or singing or reading books or looking at leaves etc etc etc My no TV rule is particularly enforced in the evenings, if she has it on before bed time it always takes her longer to settle and she’s far more prone to waking up in the night, I also cling on to something one of the midwives said about not putting babies infront of televisions.
This evening I had some work to do and she went for a visit with her father to two very dear older friends, they have the TV on alot of the time and he isn’t as rude as I am and didn’t ask them to turn it off when Hope was there. Instead they thoughtfully went to the children’s channel and found cartoons.
They came to pick me up after work and I got into the car to drive home. Hope was sitting in her car seat saying, “oh dear” over and over again. I called her father and he said she’d been watching Tom and Jerry and had said “oh dear” every time that the cat (Tom???) got hurt. I didn’t think much more of it and drove along smiling listening to her muttering “oh dear meow” when she suddenly started to cry, “Hope sad, meow hurting, oh dear meow hurting oh dear”. This carried on for about five minutes and when the sobs subsided she carried on muttering to herself, “meow hurting, oh dear”.
We got home and she ran in and then ran back looking concerned, “Mummi meow hurting?” I assured her that the afore mentioned feline was fine and sleeping and was happy and that seemed to do the trick for a while. While she was having her bedtime snack she looked up and said, “Meow happy? oh dear, meow hurting” …
Bless her … she’s going to be eternally distressed if she’s on the side of the cat in the land that Hanna and Barbera created, I always flinch when the anvil falls on his head, his tail gets cut off or his claws scrape down the side of a boat before he drops into a shark infested ocean, and it seems she will be the same.
I had no idea what age Tom and Jerry were targeted at so I looked it up; 7 – 11 years old. I was surprised it was as old as that but then again there is a lot of violence in it (and yes I know it is a cartoon and the violence is funny in the context, and yes do I love Tom and Jerry cartoons). It does say on the wikipedia page I found that the series has often been criticised as “excessively violent”. People have complained it isn’t appropriate for children as young as 7 … I wouldn’t go that far, perhaps not as young as 22 months though!!
It will be interesting to see if the “oh dear” muttering carries on tomorrow or if it has been stashed away in her mind somewhere, but tonight, driving back from work it was a little funny to hear her and realize how much really is going on in her active sponge like mind, but it was also distressing to hear her crying about how sad she was that the cat was “hurting”. I won’t say anything to our friends, they meant so well and were so so delighted to have her company this evening. Her daddy was surprised and a little put out at her reaction to her happy evening and brief cartoon session and he’s far more of a TV person than I am.
Yet another minefield to deal with, what is acceptable and what isn’t acceptable TV viewing for children … so much to think about … or maybe just stick with the ban for now and avoid doing the thinking in the short term!!!
So, there we have it, one small person concerned for the welfare of one of the most loveable but aggressive and cunning cats ever known!
As I was about to hit publish I heard her crying in her cot just now and went to see what was what only to hear her saying over and over again, “Hope sad, oh dear oh dear, meow hurting” … it’s going to be a long night … and tomorrow I need to find a picture of Tom and Jerry hugging each other and smiling to show that they are both happy and not hurting, and are infact able to be friends.
