Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

Does Barney underwear exist?

200 views
Skip to first unread message

Sheryl Gage

unread,
Mar 18, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/18/98
to

Hi,

My daughter is beginning to use her potty and has expressed
interest in having "big girl" underwear, specifically Barney
underwear. We looked at Target and found Pooh (another of
her favorites) but no Barney. She insisted on Barney, Pooh
just wouldn't do, so I told her we would have to keep looking.

Since then I have been to K-Mart, Wal-Mart, Dayton's, Babies 'R Us,
and Kohl's but have not found Barney underwear. Does anyone know
if it exists and where I can get it?

Thanks,

Sheryl Gage


Carol Koster

unread,
Mar 18, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/18/98
to

Dear Sheryl,

A few ideas:

Sit tight (no pun intended with regard to potty-training ;-)) and wait for
this new Barney movie to come out this spring to movie theaters. Since
Barney is a licensed character and this is a movie there might very well
be licensed products coming to retail stores coinciding with the movie's
release. IMHO this is going to be your best bet. When's the movie coming
out? That I don't know, perhaps if you call around to local theaters you
can find this out, or someone on this newsgroup will know.

In the list of stores you said you patronized you didn't mention JC
Penneys, Dillards, Sears, Toys R Us chains. Maybe these are not in your
community but if they are perhaps worth a try. Any other children's
apparel stores/chain stores in your area to try? Are there
relatives/friends in other cities who have still different retail stores
to try when you visit them or request they check on this for you? Try
chains and locally owned stores too.

Barney appears in a small section of Universal Studios Florida theme park
for meet-and-greets and photos/autographs. Where there is a licensed
character there is bound to be a retail store nearby selling licensed
merchandizing. ;-) It's a long shot, but if you can WWW browse or contact
a travel agent or go to the book store and locate Central Florida travel
guide books which might mention Universal, contact information for the
theme park can be obtained and you can ask if there is Barney starter
underwear for sale in the retail shops near Barney's meet-greet section of
the park. Now, I do _not_ see similar merchandise in Disney theme parks
for children but you never know for sure with regard to other theme
parks until you ask. I'm not sure if Barney also appears at Universal
Studios theme park in California, but if he does you could inquire there
too. I do know that Walt Disney World has a 1-800 phone number for
merchandise mail order of parks' merchandise if you can name the
merchandise and the shop where it's sold. Perhaps Universal Studios theme
parks have something similar.

There might be a Barney WWW site you can visit. If they have a questions
area, you can post something asking about licensed merchandise,
specifically children's underwear.

You can find out who owns the rights to Barney (call your PBS TV station
and explain the situation) and write them directly to inquire who the
Barney underwear licensee is, if any.

And lastly, there are umpteen Barney-related newsgroups in the alt.*
hierarchy, some named in ways that seem OK and others named in ways that
seem critical. You can try posting to one/some of those newsgroups and
see what turns up.

I hope this helps, Sheryl. Good luck to you and your daughter. :-)

[Posted and E-mailed.]

--
--Carol Koster ()~() FidoNet Disney Echo Co-Moderator
(_)

Lisa R McMullan

unread,
Mar 19, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/19/98
to

My girls were very into Barney when we potty trained (about 3 years ago)
and we found Barney underwear at Wal-Mart. Still have some as keepsakes
actually, since these were our first "big-girl" undies.

Lisa

Julie Misa

unread,
Mar 19, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/19/98
to

Sheryl Gage wrote in message <350EF5...@cray.com>...

>My daughter is beginning to use her potty and has expressed
>interest in having "big girl" underwear, specifically Barney
>underwear. We looked at Target and found Pooh (another of
>her favorites) but no Barney.

[snip]

Boy can I sympathize! My second daughter went through a very brief love
affair with Barney, and also wanted Barney panties. I had seen them before
at many of the stores that you mentioned. That was around the time when
Barney was everywhere. Now, however, Barney is quite a bit more scarce.
We never did find our Barney panties. My daughter had to settle for 101
Dalmatians instead (she calls them her "perro pongo panties", the Spanish
for the Dalmatians).

We did find other types of Barney clothing at garage sales. I must admit,
though, that I would not buy second-hand panties at a garage sale, even if
they did feature the purple dinosaur.

Good luck and happy hunting!

Julie

Betsy Schwartz

unread,
Mar 19, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/19/98
to

Another possibility might be to find some other sort of Barney thing and
sew it onto the underwear, like an applique. I wonder if there are Barney
iron-ons or Barney patches?

You could possibly also find someone who is talented with fabric paints and
trace a Barney design onto some plain white underwear.

Third possibility - get some stickers and give her some other sort of
Barney paraphernalia as a reward for staying dry...

good luck
Betsy

--
bet...@shore.net http://www.shore.net/~betsys
bet...@cs.umb.edu http://www.cs.umb.edu/~betsys

If this looks funny the baby is trying to help me type!

Heather

unread,
Mar 19, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/19/98
to

Gosh, he'd need big panties!

Oh, wait, that's not what you meant... Anyhow, if you can't find any,
can you buy plain white panties, green and purple fabric paint and
make your own? I'm not sure your daughter would go for it, but you
could try (she might enjoy it if she could help w/ a few).

Good luck

heather (who would find "pooh" underwear too ironic)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To reply to this message, remove the u's from the email address.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Much madness is divinest sense | Mommy to Rowan Justina (11/6/97)
To a discerning eye | Catch us online: ICQ#9468983
-Emily Dickinson | www.geocities.com/Heartland/8769


Dawn....@drake.edu

unread,
Mar 19, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/19/98
to

In article <350EF5...@cray.com>,
Sheryl Gage <sg...@cray.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,

>
> My daughter is beginning to use her potty and has expressed
> interest in having "big girl" underwear
(snip)
> She insisted on Barney

Isn't it funny what we do to encourage potty training?

It may help you to know that Barney is a registered trademark
of the parent company Lyrick Corp of Dallas Texas. Perhaps
a call to the corporate headquarters might help.

Dawn
Mom to Henry, 5, current owner of Arthur, Scooby Doo, Superman and
Spiderman underwear. Each day we must take five minutes to decide
what mood we're in....

-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
http://www.dejanews.com/ Now offering spam-free web-based newsreading

Phlip

unread,
Mar 20, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/20/98
to

Carol Koster wrote:

>And lastly, there are umpteen Barney-related newsgroups in the alt.*
>hierarchy, some named in ways that seem OK and others named in ways that
>seem critical. You can try posting to one/some of those newsgroups and
>see what turns up.

While some of these groups should be considered splinters of 'alt.flame',
and the crusaders against Barney spend more time playing with their
own rhetoric than usefully campaigning (and where have we seen that
before?), I agree wholeheartedly with their primary tenants.

The TV show "Barney and Friends" does not teach imagination, or
interaction, or skills. By teaching only worship and subservience
to Barney, it trains children to be the targets of marketing. There
is no moral difference between this show and a commercial for
action figures posing as a children's animated adventure series.

Our 3-year old daughter does not watch Barney, and has learned
to turn the TV off just before it starts every morning.

We wake Ashley up with "Sesame Street", and I can remember watching
the first episode when I was 4. The first grown-up was Bob, and the
first Muppets were Ernie and Bert. I remember thinking, "Woah! They
ripped off 'The Odd Couple'!"

-- Phlip
======= http://users.deltanet.com/~tegan/home.html =======
-- "I love you" - a farmer to his sheep on Sesame Street --


Hadass Eviatar

unread,
Mar 21, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/21/98
to

Phlip wrote:

> The TV show "Barney and Friends" does not teach imagination, or
> interaction, or skills. By teaching only worship and subservience
> to Barney, it trains children to be the targets of marketing. There
> is no moral difference between this show and a commercial for
> action figures posing as a children's animated adventure series.

Whoa, this is strong language. Why do you feel this way? My 2-year-old
loves Barney, although he also likes Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers. Why
do you think that it teaches subservience to Barney? I find it
nauseatingly sweet, but it seems innocuous enough otherwise,and talks
about useful stuff like toothbrushing and crafts. What am I missing?

Be well, Hadass, Ima to Rafi, 2 years old.

--
Dr. Hadass Eviatar (XX) mailto:evi...@ibd.nrc.ca
National Research Council of Canada Phone: (204) 984 - 4535
Institute for Biodiagnostics Fax: (204) 984 - 7036
435 Ellice Avenue, Winnipeg,MB,R3B 1Y6 http://www.ibd.nrc.ca/~eviatar
Obligatory disclaimer: NRC wouldn't dream of saying a thing like that.

Tim Volk

unread,
Mar 22, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/22/98
to

In article <351849f...@enews.newsguy.com>,

Hadass Eviatar <evi...@ibd.nrc.ca> wrote:

>Whoa, this is strong language. Why do you feel this way? My 2-year-old
>loves Barney, although he also likes Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers. Why

Me too. I was a Barney-basher (because it was fun) until my son was old
enough to watch Barney and I watched with him.

Barney, an imaginary incarnation of a stuffed animal, does not promote
imagination? No way, because of Barney, all my son's toys now have
"personalities". The remainder of the original poster's claims about what
Barney doesn't teach are just as absurd.

Now 5, my son has outgrown Barney, but much of his playtime, whether alone
or with others, is directly inspired by what he saw on Barney. He is
imaginative, cooperative, creative, and willing to share "cuz that's how
Barney did it".

Sesame Street is a fine show, but it's a little too deep for 2 - 4 yo's.
Barney's show moves slowly, and the sequences interrelate and follow a
logical progression. This is quite different from Sesame Street's style
of fast cuts and disjointed flow of topics. Sometimes, I think MTV was
directly patterned from Sesame Street.

Sorry for rambling, my morning caffeine hasn't kicked in yet.

--
TRVolk gt2...@prism.gatech.edu
CS Sr, Ga Tech, 3.4 www.prism.gatech.edu/~gt2623a

Phlip

unread,
Mar 22, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/22/98
to

Hadass Eviatar wrote:

>Phlip wrote:
>
>> The TV show "Barney and Friends" does not teach imagination, or
>> interaction, or skills. By teaching only worship and subservience
>> to Barney, it trains children to be the targets of marketing. There
>> is no moral difference between this show and a commercial for
>> action figures posing as a children's animated adventure series.
>

>Whoa, this is strong language. Why do you feel this way? My 2-year-old
>loves Barney, although he also likes Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers. Why

>do you think that it teaches subservience to Barney? I find it
>nauseatingly sweet, but it seems innocuous enough otherwise,and talks
>about useful stuff like toothbrushing and crafts. What am I missing?

One criteria for the health of a kids' show is how long a grown-up can
stand to watch it. While many shows obviously do not score very high here,
we all know (for the average grown-up) B&F fails miserably.

I read some of the FAQ of a newsgroup named something like alt.barney.die
a while ago. It is about 200 pages of sophomoric humor that, although (as I
mentioned before) doing nothing to actually campaign against Barney,
passes the "grown-up" test. But it contains a letter from a woman, Aimee
Yermish, who watched the show for a while and felt moved to write a very
non-sophmoric essay about The Purple Pestilence.

The complete text lives at

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~midnite/bharni/yermish.html

and

http://remus.rutgers.edu/~silk/barney.html

Here are two of its key 'graphs:

=========

I'm not a psychologist, but I'm also not stupid. Barney is *not* innocent,
wholesome, good-for-rug-rats fun. It models "good" behavior, but only if
you define "good" in a certain way. The main subtext of the show appears
to be that all negative emotions should simply be denied so that we can all
be happy, and that we should all conform to the group and accept the
leadership of other people instead of using our own ideas. If I had
children, I would forbid them to watch it, just like I would forbid them to
watch pornography. The values it teaches are *not* the ones I would
want my children to learn.

The children in Barney never admit to a single bit of jealousy, rivalry,
anger, tension, fear, or any other bad feeling. Well, that's not true,
precisely. On *extremely* rare occasions, they do say things like, "I
want to go next," "No, I want to go next," "Let's go together!" All
with a stupid grin on their faces that shows that there was never any
real argument. The situations can *always* be solved immediately,
care-bear style, so there is never any real tension.

=========

The only thing I have to add to what this woman said is B&F is a
parasite on the public television system that obtains free, long
advertisements every day for Barney merchandise. The show's
mission is to make a 2-year old in a mall who catches a glimpse
of a Barney toy start pointing and screaming...

Risa

unread,
Mar 23, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/23/98
to

On 18 Mar 1998 02:45:59 GMT, Sheryl Gage <sg...@cray.com> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>My daughter is beginning to use her potty and has expressed

>interest in having "big girl" underwear, specifically Barney
>underwear. We looked at Target and found Pooh (another of

>her favorites) but no Barney. She insisted on Barney, Pooh
>just wouldn't do, so I told her we would have to keep looking.
>
>Since then I have been to K-Mart, Wal-Mart, Dayton's, Babies 'R Us,
>and Kohl's but have not found Barney underwear. Does anyone know
>if it exists and where I can get it?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Sheryl Gage


Try 1-800-T0 BARNEY, if it exists they should be able to tell you.

risamc at mindspring dot com


Alan Jeddeloh

unread,
Mar 24, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/24/98
to

Forget Barney...

Does Thomas the Tank Engine underwear exist?

We though out three-year-old was going to potty-train, but
he lost interest. (Hmm, that leands a new meaning to the
term "potty-train," doesn't it?)

-Alan Jeddeloh


Kimberly McKaig

unread,
Mar 24, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/24/98
to

Yesterday's Seattle _Times_ had an ad from Fred Meyer listing Barney
underwear for toddlers, among other Barney items. I think the
movie-related marketing is beginning.

Hope this helps.

Kim McKaig
Editor/Proofreader
Mom to Teddy (3/11/95) and Kelby (1/22/97)

Judy Schmidt-Levy

unread,
Mar 24, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/24/98
to

Dawn....@drake.edu wrote:

> Mom to Henry, 5, current owner of Arthur, Scooby Doo, Superman and
> Spiderman underwear. Each day we must take five minutes to decide
> what mood we're in....
>

I couldn't resist adding this when I saw the reference to the kids'
underwear...

When my son Aaron was in the middle of potty training, he told a friend
about his great new underwear, "Pooh" and "vegetables". We overheard
this and puzzled, asked about the vegetable underwear. He went to the
drawer, brought out the Fruit of the Loom colored pair, pointed to the
logo and said, "See? Vegetables!"

Judy, mom to Aaron (now 5), who has graduated to Jurassic Park
underwear. (I don't know how comfortable I'd be with a T. Rex on my
ass.)


Marie Houck

unread,
Mar 25, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/25/98
to

In article <6f679t$g...@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu>, pbu...@bcm.tmc.edu (Paula
Burch) wrote:

> (I personally think Barney is better for young children than Sesame
> Street: there are fewer changes of scene, so it doesn't encourage the
> short attention span as Sesame Street does, and of course it's
> designed for and attractive to a younger group of kids than is Sesame
> Street--hence the hatred of the show by adults who don't understand
> why a toddler should like shows that don't appeal to adults.)

I haven't seen the show for a long time, and my own kids are too old to
have been interested when it was first out, but the reason *I* didn't like
it then was because I found the quality of the music and production values
to be sub-standard. I think our children deserve good music and well done
shows -- even if THEY don't know the difference yet. For me, any music
had to be something I could stand listening to without wanting to scream
because the accompaniment could have been done (and maybe was!) on a 2-bit
electric cord-piano with built in rhythm.

Marie Houck

mom2wc

unread,
Mar 25, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/25/98
to

Alan,

Both Barney and Thomas underwear exist. I have found both at Wal-mart.
My son love Thomas!! :-)

Cathy

Robin Netherton

unread,
Mar 25, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/25/98
to

Alan Jeddeloh (ajed...@sprintmail.com) wrote:
> Forget Barney...
>
> Does Thomas the Tank Engine underwear exist?

We found some at Penney's about a year ago. If I were looking for it, I
might also check The Great Train Store, which has several branches in this
area and a HUGE line of Thomas stuff. But I don't know how widespread that
chain is.

--Robin, mommy to Graham (4.5) the future engineer

Hadass Eviatar

unread,
Mar 25, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/25/98
to

Phlip wrote:
> One criteria for the health of a kids' show is how long a grown-up can
> stand to watch it. While many shows obviously do not score very high here,
> we all know (for the average grown-up) B&F fails miserably.

There must be something wrong with me, then. While it obviously isn't
my favourite show, I don't mind watching it with him. In any case, I
actually disagree with this criterion. Where did you get it from?

> I'm not a psychologist, but I'm also not stupid. Barney is *not* innocent,
> wholesome, good-for-rug-rats fun. It models "good" behavior, but only if
> you define "good" in a certain way.

Brushing teeth, cleaning up after oneself ... scandalous.

> The main subtext of the show appears
> to be that all negative emotions should simply be denied so that we can all
> be happy, and that we should all conform to the group and accept the
> leadership of other people instead of using our own ideas.

This actually isn't true. I've seen kids on this show who were angry,
frustrated, unhappy, etc. While admittedly the grins do get on my nerves
after a while, they aren't the only expressions we get to see.

> If I had
> children, I would forbid them to watch it, just like I would forbid them to
> watch pornography. The values it teaches are *not* the ones I would
> want my children to learn.

So this woman isn't even a parent, and hasn't watched a child learn
and enjoy while watching this show. These are purely her own reactions
to a show which is geared to 2-year-olds. In any case, I think that
comparing Barney to pornography is ridiculous.

> The children in Barney never admit to a single bit of jealousy, rivalry,
> anger, tension, fear, or any other bad feeling. Well, that's not true,
> precisely. On *extremely* rare occasions, they do say things like, "I
> want to go next," "No, I want to go next," "Let's go together!" All
> with a stupid grin on their faces that shows that there was never any
> real argument. The situations can *always* be solved immediately,
> care-bear style, so there is never any real tension.

As shown above, I disagree with this statement.

> The only thing I have to add to what this woman said is B&F is a
> parasite on the public television system that obtains free, long
> advertisements every day for Barney merchandise. The show's
> mission is to make a 2-year old in a mall who catches a glimpse
> of a Barney toy start pointing and screaming...

Mine doesn't. We are obviously a very atypical family, what can I tell
you. In any case, do you also bar Sesame Street on the same grounds?
My son is much more attached to Elmo than to Barney.

Be well, Hadass, Ima to Rafi, 24.5 months.

Tim Volk

unread,
Mar 30, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/30/98
to

In article <351d4680....@enews.newsguy.com>,

Phlip <te...@deltanet.com> wrote:
>
>The only thing I have to add to what this woman said is B&F is a
>parasite on the public television system that obtains free, long
>advertisements every day for Barney merchandise. The show's
>mission is to make a 2-year old in a mall who catches a glimpse
>of a Barney toy start pointing and screaming...


This statement can be made for many shows on PBS, and Sesame Street is a
much worse offender than Barney in terms of self-marketing. Remember
"Tickle-me Elmo"?

As PBS is further weaned from the taxpayers' teat, we will probably see
much more commercialization. I would not be surprised if commercials
start appearing in the middle of shows.

Children who watch television will be exposed to commercials no matter
what they watch. My son only wants to watch videos now, yet he still sees
the commercials at the beginning of the tapes.

Singling out Barney for its marketing from among the remainder of the PBS
offenders is ridiculous and an extremely poor argument for why it is "bad
for kids".

Paul D. Smith

unread,
Mar 31, 1998, 3:00:00 AM3/31/98
to

%% gt2...@prism.gatech.edu (Tim Volk) writes:

(What appropriate initials for this discussion :)

tv> As PBS is further weaned from the taxpayers' teat, we will probably see
tv> much more commercialization. I would not be surprised if commercials
tv> start appearing in the middle of shows.

I'm sure if that were to happen, they'd lose almost all their viewer
funding (I know _I_ wouldn't donate any more). This seems
counterproductive. Of course, the "sponsored by" bits are becoming
longer and more commercial-like all the time, IMO...

tv> Children who watch television will be exposed to commercials no
tv> matter what they watch. My son only wants to watch videos now,
tv> yet he still sees the commercials at the beginning of the tapes.

No problem; I always fast-forward through those parts for them :)

Or you could tape over them, if you want, by blocking the read-write tab
on the video cassette.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul D. Smith <psm...@baynetworks.com> Network Management Development
"Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional."
--Mad Scientist
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
These are my opinions--Bay Networks takes no responsibility for them.


Tim Volk

unread,
Apr 1, 1998, 3:00:00 AM4/1/98
to

In article <6frs5g$j...@news1.newsguy.com>,

Paul D. Smith <psm...@BayNetworks.COM> wrote:
>
>I'm sure if that were to happen, they'd lose almost all their viewer
>funding (I know _I_ wouldn't donate any more). This seems

OTOH, an intermission every 30-45 minutes for longer shows could
occasionally be appreciated. This is one of the reasons I've resisted
movie networks and watch rented tapes.

>No problem; I always fast-forward through those parts for them :)

Except my son has been inserting his own tapes since he was slightly
younger than 2.

>Or you could tape over them, if you want, by blocking the read-write tab
>on the video cassette.

Just getting all his tapes in one pile would be a gargantuan task, let
alone filling the gaps with some kind of content.

Luckily, I don't mind his exposure to commercials. I figure he might as
well learn about our capitalist society as early as possible.

Noreen Cooper

unread,
Apr 3, 1998, 3:00:00 AM4/3/98
to

Paula Burch (pbu...@bcm.tmc.edu) wrote:

: on the same channel. I don't want my kids viewing violence on
: the show OR on a commercial advertising the show. I want them to
: think that it's horrible to watch somebody die a nasty death--
: I think it's bad for kids (or anyone, really) to grow hardened
: to it.

I recall a younger sister (she was 3 at the time, I was 12) reduced to
tears when she watched an actor get killed on Kojack. She was
inconsolable for fifteen minutes, no matter how I tried to explain that it
was all fake. My son (age 3) has never seen a commercial in his life. He
watches videotapes or pre-recorded PBS programs. Not only does it save me
from having to buy the fad toys, but I believe he's less aggressive than
his peers who are allowed to watch commercial television without
restriction. One of his playgroup peers has a father who is a hockey fan.
This 3yo is allowed to watch hockey, Batman, anything-you-name-it and is
always pushing, shoving, and causing some disturbance or another. His
mother even admitted that he was hitting people in the face because he had
seen it on Hercules. I wonder if there's ever been any long-term study
which compared children from restricted television viewing families with
those without restrictions. I'm not sure you'd ever be able to isolate
commercial television violence as the sole culprit, but on a local front I
can report direct cause and effect.

--
Noreen Cooper Heavlin

Peggy Rogers

unread,
Apr 3, 1998, 3:00:00 AM4/3/98
to

Paula Burch wrote:


> gt2...@prism.gatech.edu (Tim Volk) writes:
> >Luckily, I don't mind his exposure to commercials. I figure he
> >might as well learn about our capitalist society as early as
> >possible.
>
> They're just what I most want to shield my children from until
> they are old enough to understand that commercials, in most
> cases, are merely attempts to brainwash you into doing something
> you wouldn't otherwise want to do.

Ah! My favorite! The TV wars!

I'm with Paula on this one. And like her, I've been spared being
bugged to buy a great deal of junk over the years. It's not a big
deal at our house because my husband and I just don't watch much
either. And my girls (I wonder where they got this attitude? ;-P )
are _proud_ of the fact that they don't spend time watching TV.

When my older daughter was quite young, I decided to look at a
show that was one of the most popular "family comedies" at the time.
I was appalled to see how much of the "humor" on that show was a
matter of saying insulting things about one's brothers as sisters.
That was the time that I decided I _would_ raise my children, for
the most part, without benefit of television. (So far, "Wishbone"
has been the only exception.)

<snip>

> I don't want my kids viewing violence on
> the show OR on a commercial advertising the show. I want them to
> think that it's horrible to watch somebody die a nasty death--
> I think it's bad for kids (or anyone, really) to grow hardened
> to it.

A favorite quote from artist/philosopher Frederick Frank:

If we could really see what day after day is shown on the six
o'clock news, we would burst out in tears. We would pray, or
kneel, or perhaps make the sign of the cross over that screen
in an impotent gesture of exorcising such evil, such insanity.
But there we sit, programmed as we are to look-at, to stare
passively at those burning tanks, those animals choking in oil
spills. We perfunctorily shake our head, take another sip of
our drink, and stare at the manic commercials until the thing
switches back to smiling bigwigs reviewing honor guards, rows
of corpses, and beauty queens preening.

But the worst thing about television, IMO, is not what we are doing
while we watch it, but what we are _not_ doing. Real life is better
than video, even if it's just banging on a pan with a spoon.

It's very tempting, when children are young and noisy and clumsy and
underfoot all the time, to stick them in front of a screen so that
they won't bother you for a while. But if you can resist that, they
do find ways that they can entertain themselves not very long
afterwards.

* * * * * * * * * * * Peggy Rogers * * * * * * * * * * *
* krogers?@xmission.com (Humans! remove the ? to reply!) *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"The lot of humans is explaining." --Durant Gullick

Stef Maruch

unread,
Apr 7, 1998, 3:00:00 AM4/7/98
to

Paula Burch <pbu...@bcm.tmc.edu> wrote:

>I'm going to come right out and say that I don't see anything
>wrong without plugging a child in to watch a tape to get them out
>of the way for half an hour. :-) That was how I managed to take my
>daily shower when my older son was three.

Yeah. It's not the tube that's the problem, in my opinion, it's the
commercials. And the commercials are only a problem if the child isn't able
to view them with a critical eye or isn't helped to do so.
--
Stef ** rational/scientific/philosophical/mystical/magical/kitty **
** st...@cat-and-dragon.com <*> http://www.bayarea.net/~stef **


olew...@megsinet.net

unread,
Apr 8, 1998, 3:00:00 AM4/8/98
to

I think Totally Thomas in CA (on the web) sells them as well as Thomas'
Toybox in Pennsylvania (also on the web). We bought my son's undies at
Babies R Us (formerly Baby Superstore).

Laura

> Does Thomas the Tank Engine underwear exist?
>

> We though out three-year-old was going to potty-train, but
> he lost interest. (Hmm, that leands a new meaning to the
> term "potty-train," doesn't it?)
>
> -Alan Jeddeloh
>
>

MJEdit

unread,
Apr 21, 1998, 3:00:00 AM4/21/98
to

Hello..

I found Thomas underwear at Sears.

MJ
Megan J.
Freelance Book Editor and Mom to Daniel (2 3/4) and Michaela (6 mos)


0 new messages