I Am Tiramisu

If you're a mother or a daddy,aunt, uncle or retail store attendant, chances are, you would recognize the characters above. It would be impossible for you to not to. Each household with a kid has at least one of these. The Baby Einstein dvd's, books and all sort of stuff. Guilty. We have the whole set of 10. Got them when Alyssa was born. While I was desperately trying to lose the pregnancy weight doing my daily exercises, I would put 1 dvd on while Alyssa takes short peeks at it for the next 30 minutes. I didn't force her, mind you. But the colorful characters and soothing voice of the lady made her look. 30 minutes of tv time was all we allowed her before the age of 2. But by her 1st birthday, she was speaking fluent English already. We never baby talked to her either. We give half the credit to the dvd's (to CNN and BBC too...). Dora came much later. I had been aware of the dispute of a vigilant group against Disney, the holders of The Baby Einstein. Claiming that the dvd's didnt help their kids become geniuses at all. Hmmm...so they took down the word 'educational' in all their labels and ads. They offered refunds for those interested. Oh, they had been offering refunds way before the lawsuit and all.

A lot of my friends have been using the dvd's with their kids and they are greatly satisfied. Common denominator? These moms watched the dvd's and interacted with their kids, just as the instruction before each show would suggest. AHA!!! There you go people. There you go vigilantes of the land of too much freedom. You don't leave your kid alone in front of the tv set while you go about doing whatever you need to do (to survive as you may argue, fine.). You interact. Your voice, your touch, your warmth helps. These dvds are never meant to be independent electronic babysitters! There is a 3-minute introduction before every show which tells us how to use the dvds. Listen to it.

So geniuses are not made. Sure, fine. But I surely would want to help my kids learn the basics with me, at home, before they go to school. In this day and age, you can't help but do just that. But there is absolutely no pressure, if you don't want to, it's ok. Not all moms are naturally equipped with the education on how to motivate their babies. Well I chose to learn how. I chose to buy the dvds. And I followed how it is how to be used. I knew I needed help in learning the potentials of my babies. But I surely didn't just leave them on the crib with the tv on for the next 30 minutes. Tv time is bad for babies under 2. I agree. I still let mine watch their share, before the age of 2. But highly supervised. Highly, strictly. Never did I not know what they were watching.

Oh well, you just can't please them all can you? Nobody's supposed to actually anyway. hehehe. I still stand behind the product. I am no way being paid to defend it. I just do, because I believe I was able to use it the right way in digging out my kid's potentials when they were still babies. That's my side of the argument.