Is it me or are the Baby Einstein videos a plot to brainwash our kids?

[Taverner]

Watching the little dude, occasionally I sit in with him on these VHS pacifiers (they calm him down every time) and before you judge, let me ask you have you ever raised a finicky baby before?

Anyway...the vids are strangely mezmorizing - and to boot all of the toys featured are for sale on the baby einstein website...

But besides this, and I may just be sleep deprived, I swear there must be some hidden agenda. Oh sure laugh, but when our babies grow up to be stark raving Republicans in bunny suits you won't be laughing....

[Pithlet]

1. My 12 month old niece loves them.

I haven't bought them for my kids yet. When she was in town visiting, the three of them would sit in front of the tv just mesmerized. Even my then 6 month old. I thought they were cute - none of the material was objectionable in the least - but I can't figure out why they're any more entertaining then a lot of the other stuff out there.

[supernova]

2. My 24 mo old niece loves them, esp "stars"

That's what she calls the Baby Newton video.

I like them too. It's actually a pretty clever idea. Introducing concepts by showing similar objects, without explicitly stating it.

[SW FL Dem]

3. All I have to say is that they are a lot easier to listen to than Barney

From what I saw when visiting my sister and her 10 mo old, Baby Einstein consists of mellow classical music and interesting shapes, sounds etc on screen. Not as educational as Sesame street, but less annoying than the Teletubbies or Barney ("I love you, you love me, we're a happy family" :puke:)

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

4. Surely you are sleep deprived. No one in corporate Amerikkka

would dream of brainwashing kids to want to ask for stuff they don't need.
Why, that would be just ghastly. Something only the Godless Communists of Russia or China would have done.
Now the only people who do that are Cubans and some Muslims (but not the nice ones in Saudi Arabia) who live to hate Amerikkka.

Shame on you for even having such anti-Amerikkkan thoughts like that.

Now, go, turn yourself in to the nearest gulag, errrr, population re-education center run by the Department of Homeland Security.

Shame.

[SarahB]

5. My hyper kids never sat still for them.

My youngest son did a little, but then he discovered Jay Jay the Jet Plane, followed by the wonderful and amazing Thomas the Tank Engine and he was hooked on Thomas. Vehicles with faces seem to still be his thing.
My children had obscure movie likes as toddlers. Ranging from The Wizard of Oz to The Brave Little Toaster to The Iron Giant.

[tigereye]

6. for my son, now 8

It was the dreaded Baby Shapes tape. My sister used to run screaming from it, yelling, Baby Shapes Tape. Yeah, they are kind of hypnotic. Haven't seen the Einstein ( eyeroll) ones. And yeah, I used a baby swing, too. SO there. Otherwise we wouldn't have been able to eat dinner for about a year! So no guilt, Taverner.

[Maestro]

7. They do no harm. -nt

[LibertyLover]

8. Baby Einstein

When we adopted our little girl 8 months ago, one of my collegues gave me the Baby Mozart tape. I thought it would be just right since our little girl was from China, was 16 months old and didn't speak English. Bethan was so totally bored by it that halfway through I stopped the tape and put in Muppet Treasure Island. She loves Sesame Street, the Muppets, the Dixie Chicks music video and dinosaur movies like Dinosaur Planet and Walking with Dinosaurs. We do not let her watch Barney - you have to draw the line somewhere afterall.