What television shows do you let your kids watch?

Before having children I think most people have this idea of all things we will never, ever, under any circumstances allow our children to do. One of which revolves around watching television and especially, how much time we will let them in engage in such a “passive activity.” I do let my son watch usually one 30-45 min. show per day, honestly, I need to get dinner started or to get some quick house chore accomplished and at this stage of the game it’s the only thing that entertains him long enough to remain in one general space. Either he watches television for 30 minutes or he’s climbing chairs, climbing the gate to try to climb the stairs, unplugging the plastic protectors from my outlet covers, trying to open cabinets, banging on the bathroom door so he can try to play in the toilet, or climbing up on the baseboard heater to look out our second story window. If I were independently wealthy enough to hire maids and cooks than of course this wouldn’t be an issue because I could potentially sit and play with him all day, but my reality is that no matter how many toys we try to entice him with, he is at the age where he plays for a few minutes before he’s curiously and unsafely reaping havoc in our living room.

So we’ve been through several show phases starting with the Backyardigans, The Wiggles, Sesame Street (Elmo’s World specifically) and now our “go to” guy of the month is Barney. Yes the hopping, leaping, goofy purple dinosaur, whose best friends are Baby Bop and BJ, and the dinosaur who has had all sorts of awful songs created about him. Let the innocence of childhood prevail because Gavin has no biases, he is just as happy to see Barney appear on television sometimes, as he is when my husband or I come home at the end of a work day. So I put on my educational hat and have rationalized why we continue to watch certain shows in our house. No matter what anyone says, these shows mostly involve real people or even animals that talk conversationally and have real personalities. They sing real songs, some which have been around for decades that we learned as a child and there is  some element of promoting real life skills by teaching letters, numbers, how to have manners and how to be a good friend.

I can say, Gavin is honestly learning from this show. He loves trying to imitate the hand gestures to familiar songs like the Itsy Bitsy Spider along with the show. Even more adorable is that he loves the song Barney sings at the end, “I love you, you love me, we’re a great big family, with a great big hug and a kiss from me to you, won’t you say you love me too.” Not only is he singing along, but he is giving these tremendous squeezes and wet sloppy smooches in the right spots, everytime. We sing it now before he goes to bed as part of our bedtime routine, which he emphatically requests multiple times over and again saying, “more YOU!” So Barney, right now I am forever indebted to you for how absolutely stinking adorable my little man is –every time we share this moment together.

In honor of our love for Barney we are giving away two DVD sets, the Barney Playdate Pack (3 DVD’s shown above) AND the Thomas the Train Playdate Pack (3 DVD’s)!

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Comment under this post what types of shows you think are educational that your family enjoys.

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Giveaway ends June 27th, 11:59 p.m. EST.

These DVD packs were provided free to facilitate a review. The opinions are my own.