Don't blame Peppa Pig for children's bad behaviour - blame their wishy-washy parents
Filed under: Kids
Channel 5
Poor little Peppa Pig. It's bad enough that she has to put up with having both eyes on one side of her face and has to wear a dress a bag lady wouldn't be seen dead in, but now she's being blamed for turning the nation's toddlers into a bunch of demanding brats.
According to a report, parents are oinking mad at Peppa because they say their children copy the cute porker's "naughty behaviour".
The devilish crimes the children's TV favourite and her younger brother George are said to influence include answering back, turning their noses up at vegetables (and demanding chocolate cake) and splashing about in muddy puddles on the way to school.
What hogwash!
We parents can no more blame Peppa Pig for our children choosing cake over cucumber than I can blame Phineas and Ferb for making my sons think they can fly.
The problem here is not Peppa, but parenting: weak parenting.
More specifically, 'Everyone's At Fault But Me' parenting.
These are the mums and dads of Princess Precocious and Tommy Tantrum. Kids who have never heard the word 'No'.
Children whose parents endlessly negotiate with their children instead of laying down the law, setting rules and drawing boundaries.
You see them all the time, in cinemas, in cafes, in shops. Running amok, making demands, throwing strops, ruling the roost.
They'd be wrapping their wishy-washy coochie-woochie parents around their tiny pinkies regardless of whether their viewing of choice was Peppa Pig or a picture of fluffy wuffy kittens set to soft music.
Because such parents have turned their offspring into teeny tyrants. And when their children's behaviour gets out of hand (although how splashing around in a puddle can be regarded as "naughty" is beyond me) the same parents don't look to themselves and their own child-rearing strategies, they flail around, looking for someone or something else to blame.
Child has a meltdown in the supermarket because she can't have a bar of chocolate? That'll be the supermarket's fault.
Child comes home from school with a lump on his head because of a bit of rough and tumble in the playground? That'll be the school's fault.
Child won't eat her greens and – God forbid – "answers back"? That'll be Peppa's fault.
And not just Peppa - anything on TV that parents think influences their children's behaviour in a negative way.
Well, OF COURSE, telly influences our children's behaviour. And OF COURSE it's not always for the good.
As psychologist Dr Aric Sigman said: "The problem is you can't distinguish to children what is real and pretend. You can't just say to the child the pig was only pretending it was naughty."
But TV is only a part of our children's lives and experiences. The biggest influencers by far are us – parents.
The examples we set, the rules we lay down, the discipline we instil.
Personally, as a housedad to three children aged 10, seven and four, I LOVE the telly. It is THE best babysitter tool bar none. I'm sure it's educational, but I actually don't care if it is or isn't – because that's what school's for. That's what I'M for.
When my kids get up in the morning, they have their breakfast, get dressed, brush their teeth, comb their hair – then sit in front of the TV for half an hour while I get ready to take them to school.
When they get home from school, they have half an hour in front of the telly – it used to be Peppa Pig, but now it's Phineas and Ferb – while I prepare their dinner, after which they do half an hour of homework and reading.
Then it's back to the box for 45 minutes of Skylanders, before teeth and bed.
When I say it's time for tea, or time for homework, or time for bed, they moan and whinge, but they do exactly what I ask of them – because in our house, my word is law.
It might sound draconian, it might sound old-fashioned, but it works, because my kids know where they stand.
And if at any point I feel I'm losing control, I use the ultimate sanction – the phrase: "Wait 'til your mother gets home."
Something I learned from children's telly years ago!
What do you think? Do parents look for excuses too often?
- A broken window<p> How many times have you told him not to play football by the kitchen window? Does he ever listen?</p>
- You never got the letter about parent's evening<p> What’s the point of giving you a crumpled letter with the date and time of parents’ evening the day after it’s taken place?</p>
- Muddy footprints on the carpet<p> You spent a whole hour yesterday hovering the whole house, and now there’s a trail of brown footprints all the way from the front door to the kitchen….</p>
- Chickenpox<p> Everyone says you can’t get chickenpox twice. But you can, you can. Or else your horribly spotty six-year-old is a medical miracle.</p>
- Your child loses a left shoe<p> How? How is this possible? Will the school let her wear trainers? Or will she just have to hop?</p>
- Ripped school uniform<p> No, it’s not possible to do an invisible mend from the ankle to the thigh - and why was your innocent-looking child scaling a six-foot wall in the first place?</p>
- Missing sports kit<p> Just because you feed the washing machine every single day, it doesn’t logically follow that you know the exact whereabouts of her swimming costume/tracksuit/gym kit.</p>
- A reduction in child tax credits<p> You haven’t put jam in their sandwiches for the past six months. Now you might not even be able to afford the bread…</p>
- Your child needs cash at 8am - and your purse is empty<p> It’s for the school trip that she didn’t tell you about last week - and today is the last day for handing in the money…</p>
- Your child has nits - again<p> You spent all last week with a nit comb and bottles of cheap conditioner, and sent your little darling off to school with shiny hair free of insect life. But other parents haven’t bothered. And now you have to go through the whole thing all over again…</p>
