Dora, Thomas the Train and Spiderman

[lyra2007]

Why does my 2.5 year old know these characters? She has never watched them at home. They don't watch them at daycare. Are other little kids so obsessed with them that they talk about them all the time?
Last night she said she wanted to watch a movie (which we almost never do, so that in itself was weird) and she wanted it to be "Spiderman." Which we don't have. I am sure she got this from school, but are other people really letting their 2 year olds watch "Spiderman." Or am I just hopelessly out of touch?

[mommariffic]

This happens to DD too [she's 3] if she hears something once she's like oh hey now! I know that in passing she's heard the words "Spiderman" "Batman" etc and when she asked we ended up getting her these Superhero sticker things but she can not watch the shows.

[just_lily]

It could be that one of the other kids has an older sibling that really likes Spiderman. Or sometimes it could just be the character on a shirt or something that sparks the interest.

[curiouscanadian]

DS was the same - somehow he knew who Diego was long before he'd ever seen the show. Thomas the Train, well, Grandpa's kind of a train nut so there was no avoiding that one. :P As far as I know DS wouldn't recognize Spiderman (although it wouldn't surprise me, it's just the other young kids he plays with are all girls).

Sadly, I do think a large percentage of kids watch enough TV to get excited about the characters and in a daycare setting your DD will pick that up to a certain extent. My nephew is 4 and thinking back, he's been obsessed with Batman/Spiderman/Bakugan for at least 2 years. So yeah.

[JudiAU]

ARGH

Let me say again ARGH

Yeah, they pick it up from other kids or the media-onslaught that is a regular store.

We've done pretty well actually. I was sure my 3 1/2 had a spidey movement but my husband insisted no one would let a 3 year old do superheros. He is a big fan and explained at great and boring length the ideal age for superheros. But no, some parents do think they are for young kids.

We don't do tv either and when/if we do, it will be age-appropriate.

[PoppyMama]

It's true that many of us parents censor as minimally as possible so Spiderman is acceptable for 2/3 year olds. Kids talk about what they are interested in so other kids will hear about it. Cultural intelligence.

[Jayray]

There are also often books about these characters. Maybe they're reading something at daycare?? My son has Thomas books, but has never seen the shows. I actually like the books. I guess they came before all the other crap.

[RaeDyCo]

My DS1 learned about Thomas from other kids at DCP who were wearing Thomas clothes. Same with spiderman. And it quickly developed into "I want..." sigh!

[liberal_chick]

My ds1 was first exposed to Thomas at Barnes and Noble (ours has a huge Thomas section with a table set up for play). It was all over after that. We started his Thomas collection with some trains and track for his 3rd birthday and that spiraled into getting books and movies as well. Ds2 knows Thomas very well from living with ds1. LOL

[jellybeanandkids]

My DD knows about Spongebob via DS (8). I let her watch a few shows, she has watched some Sprout and Kai-Lan. I don't mind a little bit of TV though, it is the only way I can get some chores done.

[tjjazzy]

maybe other kids are wearing clothes with Dora, Thomas or Spiderman on them or maybe they have the toys and books at her day care. some might have older siblings who like Spiderman. who knows? i'm sure it's not a big deal as long as they're not allowing the kids to watch the shows without your permission.

[nelson]

Originally Posted by lyra2007

Why does my 2.5 year old know these characters? She has never watched them at home. They don't watch them at daycare. Are other little kids so obsessed with them that they talk about them all the time?

Now you have a kid who another parent may label as being obsessed with those characters. It seems like you are unfairly judging others IMO. Who really cares how she knows about them, if you don't let you DD watch them, then what difference does it make? Do you actually think that other 2 year olds sit and talk to her about tv characters "all the time"?

[Toposlonoshlep]

Originally Posted by nelson

Do you actually think that other 2 year olds sit and talk to her about tv characters "all the time"?

Ummm. YEAH. Everything is so oversaturated with Dora and Diego for example, that my tv-free 19 month old says "Dora" when he sees the Dora 4D exhibit at the zoo. The zoo, fergedsake....A place where there are live amazing animals. What do all the two year olds want to do? "See Dora!". He's not even in day care....Seriously, that's all I hear from the kids running around the zoo. It makes me sick.

[nelson]

Toposlonoshlep, I was simply responding to the question of :

Originally Posted by lyra2007

Why does my 2.5 year old know these characters? She has never watched them at home. They don't watch them at daycare. Are other little kids so obsessed with them that they talk about them all the time?

Originally Posted by Toposlonoshlep

Everything is so oversaturated with Dora and Diego for example, that my tv-free 19 month old says "Dora" when he sees the Dora 4D exhibit at the zoo.

I am not arguing that we don't see crazy amounts of marketing specifically attacking our toddlers at every turn, I totally agree with that. I was actually trying to make that exact point, that the OP's DD could have picked up the character names anywhere, (like your LO, from the zoo) and that she is possibly making unfair judgments about other parents and kids.

[MissE]

I don't see anything wrong with Thomas the Train...at least not versus Spiderman. My 3 1/2 year old used to watch Thomas..he got kinda bored with it. He's never seen a spiderman clip in his life but yet he LOVES 'him'. He's got a t-shirt that he wears proudly but that's about all the spidy he'll get for now. I know there are other kids at daycare talking about it and also at playgroups they see or hear about spiderman/batman/ironman etc and it fascinates my son.

[ChetMC]

Effort

We've make an effort to be free of licensed characters, but Thomas the Tank Engine is an exception. He has been freely welcomed into our home.

Our oldest learned about Spiderman, Batman and Superman from other kids at preschool. At three, DD had an absolutely astounding amount of knowledge regarding Superman.

It's pretty hard to avoid Dora. She's all over kids clothes, books, stickers, bandaids, etc. At least the clothes, books, stickers and bandaids don't yell constantly.

This time of year kids at daycare would be talking about what they want to be for Halloween.

Most of the time, I can trace back where our kids pick stuff up. I've never been able to figure out how our oldest learned to recognize McDonald's. It happened overnight, around the time she was three, like her brain suddenly learned to process the logo. It was very weird.

[junipervt]

We don't do tv or characters for 2.5 yr old DD & she knows who Elmo is. Want to know how? One of her friends has a sippy cup w/ Elmo on it, so she knows Elmo as the red monster on Carmen's cup.

so far she does not recognize any other characters unless they are ones from her books like Grover or Pooh.

[JudiAU]

We don't do any characters, I don't care how inoffensive the origins. Anything that has an agressive marketing campaign to kids is out. I don't care if it comes from PBS or "a book" you try and sell over and over and over to kids and you aren't coming into my house. And which "book" anyway, the books that launched the media empire or 1,000 and crummy knock-offs in the "style of" or "illustrated like." It astonishes me that people pay money to let their kids advertise stuff.

And kids do sit around and talk "characters" all they time when they are exposed to them. Some kids pretty much only know characters and their play (stilted, unimaginative, locked into the script) shows that. There have been several exhaustive studies that link the two.

It really bothers me that I try so hard to protect my kids for these things and everything pretty much everywhere is trying to force it down their throats. Certainly force it down my throat.

[hakeber]

Originally Posted by lyra2007

Why does my 2.5 year old know these characters? She has never watched them at home. They don't watch them at daycare. Are other little kids so obsessed with them that they talk about them all the time?

Yes

Last night she said she wanted to watch a movie (which we almost never do, so that in itself was weird) and she wanted it to be "Spiderman." Which we don't have. I am sure she got this from school, but are other people really letting their 2 year olds watch "Spiderman." Or am I just hopelessly out of touch?

And yes.

This is why many parents choose to homeschool.

I let DS watch spiderman when he was 4 and he was bored in about ten minutes, never even got to the scary bits. I was baffled that a toddler would enjoy it. It has a fairly complex plot and it's live action.

Don't you remember going to school and having kids talk about shows that were on that you weren't allowed to watch? I remember it clearly because there were the "cool kids" who got to stay up late and watch Dallas and Taxi but I had to be in bed before those shows were on (Fraggle Rock and then it was bed time)...not that I would have been allowed to watch them anyway.

[Youngfrankenstein]

Originally Posted by JudiAU

It astonishes me that people pay money to let their kids advertise stuff.

I agree with you in theory, but when a child expresses a huge longing for something like that, at what point do you want to see them happy? I don't mean buying ones' kids' off or giving in on everything.

My nephew, two in a month, loves that giant Monkey guy from Target. He was thrilled when his mother bought him the T-Shirt and jammies. He just loves it so much. I don't think it changes who he is or make him a schill.