It is easy to buy a tighter tummy, wrinkle-free skin, a sculpted face, firmer (or larger) breasts, so why can’t we just buy some smarts for our kids. No, make that babies, why wait. Imagine if our babies had a head-start over all the other kids who ‘waste their time playing’ with spoons and saucers.
Why can’t we buy some smarts for our babies? []
According to a story published in the Times ‘One study, published by The Journal of Pediatrics and conducted by researchers at the University of Washington, concluded that for every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs, infants understood on average six to eight fewer words than children who did not watch television.’ There seems to be mounting evidence that not only do the baby-targeted DVDs do no good, they are actually likely to harm babies.
It is not difficult to see how parents, especially first-time parents, get persuaded to buy products that will make their children smarter, healthier, happier, whatever. And if the product requires little or no effort, apart of course from paying for it, and comes from a well known company, accompanied by a high-decibel advertising campaign, then you are guaranteed a winner. No, not a winner kid, but a winner product! Consider that Disney sells about $200m worth Baby Einstein products a year to unsuspecting parents.
If you are one of those parents who bought the DVDs, you may not be able to undo the harm that the researchers suggest, however you can get a full refund form Disney. Under threat of a class-action lawsuit for unfair and deceptive practices Disney agreed to refund the price to all who bought the videos. It may be a good idea to get your money back and but some ‘katori’ and ‘chammach’ for your baby!
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