Kingsley: IPAD

I was a much better parent before I had Kingsley. I took my future child on exotic wildlife safaris, visited museums and art galleries, got him into music classes and interpretive dance, and he learned sign language from birth. He grew up bilingual, on Greek mythology, and was read the classics nightly. I never bought into using television as a babysitter (heck, we don’t even own a telly!), let alone allow the child to even blink in the direction of the IPAD. Cartoon franchises were anathema to me…

Then I had Kingsley and I showed him the wonderful world contained on Youtube…

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Disney and other children’s ‘networks’ snuck up on us. Both. One minute Kingsley and I are innocently cuddling in bed, singing and cooing; the next, we are subscribing to the Peppa Pig Channel and scrolling through all the episodes.

Our son practically imploded. Bewitched; captivated; charmed. From sheer delight at what he was looking at, Kingsley began squealing! Oh the thrill of it all: a family of talking pigs…

Am I rearing a cartoon junkie?

As a good parent, am I responsible for instilling in my child only the cultural ideals I consider valuable, or will he get to make his own choices?

Well for now the choice is made: its the IPAD when King gets cranky and its cartoons for when he is snuggled with me. Language lessons and maths tutorials can wait just a little while longer.

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