Commercially Cursed

My kids watch TV. Lots of TV. Hell, one of Baby's first words was "Dora."

Once, when Toddler was a baby, I made the mistake of watching The Patriot while she was eating lunch. Every time a soldier was shot she said, “Uh-oh.” At the final dramatic battle, all we could hear was, “Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh.”

Uh-oh.

So now when my children are awake, they primarily watch children's programming. In particular, they watch NickJr., Disney Channel, and PBS because those programs do not air commercials.

I dislike all commercials, but I particularly dislike commercials geared towards kids. At the risk of sounding like an old fart, kids don’t know what’s good for them.

For example, when grocery shopping we try to choose healthy snacks for Toddler. She barely knew chips existed, because we rarely went down that aisle. Yet one glimpse of Chester Cheetah, and she now has a Cheetos tantrum at the supermarket even though she has never eaten Cheetos.

So why, oh why, does her new Caillou DVD, a program only aired in America on PBS, contain a commercial for Chuck-E-Cheese that we cannot skip through to get to the main menu?

It’s bad enough we have to hear that ear-grating song.