What do you think about Dora?

[Triniity]

Hi,

my kids are in front of the computer (the other one :) ) wathcing a Dora DVD. Their first one. I hear them shouting and "helping" Dora, and they have a blast. But I don't.

I feel creepy. It makes my skin crawl when I hear DD trying to help her, or to try to tell her how she liked the show. (and than she would be upset because Dora doesn't wait long enough.)

they love it. I feel like I am betraying them, they think it's real, when it's not.

What do you think?

[Mosaic]

A lot of people here HATE Dora with a passion otherwise saved for Chick-fil-a.

Personally, we tape her from Univision so that it's 98% Spanish and 2% English, and we're think she's fine. The accent is clear and the vocabulary is more universal Spanish and not all Mexican like many Spanish-language programs available here. My DDs don't watch much tv and are scared by EVERYTHING (even commercials), so Dora is usually a safe bet and my 6yo enjoys them. The episodes are all the same, and there is a LOT of branding in the stores, but my DD hasn't gotten very into the "stuff" side as I was afraid of, so that's good.

If you don't like it, skip it and find something else!

[journeymom]

Originally Posted by Triniity 

they love it. I feel like I am betraying them, they think it's real, when it's not.

What do you think?

Betraying them how? I think you're over-thinking it!  Of course I don't know your kids but my guess is that at age 6 your daughter is clear that Dora isn't there real-time talking to them.  Your 4 y.o., maybe he believes there's a Dora talking and waiting for them to answer, but so what if he does? How is this fantasy going to impact him in real life? This issue is self-limiting anyway, his faith in Dora is going to disappear all on its own shortly. 

My personal experience, reaching way back 4 decades through the mists of time to when I was watching Sesame Street and Mr. Rodgers: if you asked me if Bert, Ernie and Lady Elaine Fairchilde were real, whatever that means, I would have said of course not! But they were real enough in my head that I loved them.  Seriously, that's partly why those shows were phenomenally successful.  They wouldn't have lasted more than a month if kids didn't invest some faith in the fantasy that these puppets played out.

You might ask your children, straight up, 'do you think Dora is real?' Their answer might surprise you.  

I'm not advocating that you keep it. I do not like that show, am really grateful that my daughter was too old for it when it premiered.

[journeymom]

I found this interesting article about how children deal with fantasy life, and this seems to sum up what I'm trying to say:

Although children this age often know the difference between fantasy and reality, they don't necessarily feel that they need to be bothered with it!

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/ages-stages-magical-thinking

[MadiMamacita]

Dora is on my no list but only because I find it tedious. There are lots of shows on my no-list for that reason. I wanted to support Dora until I watched an episode and just no. I do appreciate some diversity, both in looks and language, on mainstream TV, but I can't take it in this particular package.

I always wonder though, if its just my kid.. if he watches one of those "participation" shows where the kid is supposed to answer a question or name an object or something and the tv characters are waiting for him to respond he doesn't play along, which makes the show even more ridiculous with silent pauses answered with silence. I'm glad to hear there are some kids who will play along! maybe he is just too young- he's 3.5..

[Kaydove]

I was a nanny when Dora first came out and I've always hated it because she yells all the damn time! Goodluck teaching kids to use their inside voice when she's screaming at them. I also found that kids don't actually use the Spanish they learn from the show.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

[CatsCradle]

Through my adult eyes, Dora is annoying.  Annoying to me much like a lot of other childrens' programming.  The caveat, though, is that when I see old Youtube videos of the stuff I used to watch when I was a kid, I perfectly understand that my parents were probably annoyed too, even then.

There's a lot of super-cool programming out there like Yo Gabba Gabba which, in my opinion, sort of caters to the sensibilities of parents as well as kids.  That's cool but I also recognize that there is certain stuff that will irritate or bore the H out of me.  I don't like to play on DD's terms a lot of times.  It can be mind-numbing.  I think Dora is a good example of the mind-numbingness (at least from my perspective).  I actually like Diego better but maybe because the Diego shows are slightly more sophisticated (rescuing baby animals, etc.).  

I don't know.  I live in an area where there are a lot of ethnic groups (both Latin and Central America, as well as European and Arabic) where talking loud and often is the norm.  I'm surrounded by chatter.  The noise of Dora doesn't bother me so much as just the poor graphics and repetitive story lines.  I'm easily annoyed, though.

[MadiMamacita]

Originally Posted by CatsCradle 


There's a lot of super-cool programming out there like Yo Gabba Gabba which, in my opinion, sort of caters to the sensibilities of parents as well as kids.  

yo gabba gabba is like an acid trip for kids all the flashing lights and quick image changes give me a crazy headache.