Peppa Pig told to belt up Parents whose kids have ever refused to belt up will be relieved to learn that kids TV character Peppa Pig will not in future been seen without a seatbelt, thereby ensuring that pre-school nippers are educated early in the need to travel in safety. Peppa Pig: Pic: Astley Baker Davies Astley Baker Davies, the company behind …
There are too many 'families' in this country where the child is in charge and the parents do whatever the kids want.
My daughter is nearly 5. A while back she refused to allow me to (appropriately)strap her into the (appropriate) seat. So I simply lifted her out the car, locked the car and went back indoors. She cried about not going out and was told simply, either get strapped in, or don't go in the car - you choose. Needless to say we now have no issue about wearing seatbelts.
I tend to agree that to some extent the people who have complained are perhaps missing an opportunity. I remember an occasion when our daughter saw an episode of Nijntje (Miffy in the UK) and her observation was that she does not look where she is going when riding a bike so she is naughty.
Peppa pig is also naughty for not wearing a seat belt and that is the lesson to be taken from this. But to what level do you allow the naughtiness? We do not like our daughter seeing too much violence so some cartoons are not allowed. If there were a children's show that routinely showed people smoking then that would be black listed too.
There are posts here that simply say we should not be allowing kids to use role models from the television. The trouble is that kids use everything as role models and simply telling a five year old that it is only fiction does not work. That's why we have ratings on films because kids do not always understand that television is fiction. The best you can hope for is that they realise that not all people make good role models.
I tend to agree with your approach to parenting but there is an obvious danger to telling a four year that she or he has a choice and that is that they will choose the option you did not want them to choose (most likely when it is most inconvenient).
...they're doing all this work because one idiot parent doesn't have the nouse to tell their offspring (a) Peppa Pig is a pig and pigs can't actually drive cars and (b) shut up and do as you're told.
It's a cartoon of a family of talking pigs who live in a house, wear clothes, drive cars, etc. it isn't supposed to be realistic.
My girl is totally addicted to Peppa (could call her a toddler uber fan and it it soooooooooo annoying) and has not once commented on the fact the pink piggy one doesn't wear a seat belt. I suspect this kids mother who complain has nothing better to do with her time other than complain about a kids tv program.
Hell in my day Fred Flintstone was driving a car with no floor let alone seatbelts and I managed to survive.
See, normally parents are all proud and stuff cos their particular little brat is "special". But whenever it suits you, you're willing to take the opposite view -- that your child is 100% identical to every other child, so if anyone claims a child is different from yours it's clearly their fault.
one parent "complained that her daughter had refused to wear a seatbelt because Peppa did not."
OMG epic parenting fail!
For starters - ONE parent... One out of how ever many million parents there are in this world... talk about catering to the pathetic minority!
she should have said "I'm telling you to put it on and i'm your mother, now shut up and put your seat belt on before I belt you one myself you spoilt little brat!"
It's a F'cking cartoon character FFS - Fic-tion-al Char-ac-ter, when the hell did fictional crap outweigh a parents ruling??? I bet she voted Labour.
seriously, it's dumbass parents like this who make me think back to the days when my Biology teacher ranted that everyone should have to pass a common sense, competency test and get a certificate in order to have kids
... except that it brought such a cold chill of reality.
I am saddened, and feel so glad my parents taught me personal responsibility.
Now, if only we can get the government to understand that concept, instead of being filled with Piggy Porkers, eh?
Oddly, that works for both sides of the pond...
I would say that being unable to convince one's child of the need to wear a seatbelt is one's own failure. Instead of phoning up the BBC to complain about Peppa Pig maybe these parents should invest in one of the many excellent books available on how to get your kids to do as they're bloody well told.
Hint: refusing to take them anywhere in the car unless they comply is a good start. If that means you don't get the weekly shop, so much the better. A couple of days of dry bread for dinner and any philosophical position they hold on seatbelts will be quickly amended.
It is totally inappropriate to complain to the BBC about Peppa Pig, as she airs on Channel 4 (do you guys not watch kids TV?)
The one time have been tempted to complain to the BBC was about an episode of Bob the Builder in which sound travels faster than light (although there are clear health and safety and competitive tendering issues in Bobsville as well).
"...one parent complained..."
I'm willing to bet that parent is unable to control their child at the best of times, and was simply blaming someone else for those failings. Psychologists have a word for this subconscious transfer of responsibility but I forget what it's called.
I have a hideously disfigured nose because when my brother and I were young we used to pretend to be Tom and Jerry, and he would frequently smash me in the face with a frying pan. Some might argue that my parents should have just told him not to pound my face with iron mongery but I think it's quite obvious that children should be allowed to mindlessly emulate any behaviour they witness, regardless of whether the role model in question is a cartoon even-toed ungulate.
I blame the animators.
The animators had "initially considered including seatbelts and child seats in the show but felt it might limit the characters' range of expressions"
- why would the seatbelt cover their faces?
Surely they would need an extra "ow this seatbelt is really pinching my massive pigbody" expression, not less.
Anyway, let this be a lesson to them. ONE WHOLE MUM complained. Take that. Never do shoddy work again. Next time it might be TWO PARENTS.
It doesn't say how old the mum is. She might actually not be much older than her kid. At least the mum didn't use the excuse herself to the cops as to why SHE wasn't wearing a belt.
"We were very naive when we started making Peppa"
the rest of the sentence read "in believing that parents knew how to bring up their children and take repsonsibility for that upgringing. We know know this is not the case and we have to waste our time making up for the poor quality of parents today." Peppa pig is 6.
Yes one complaint in 6 years. I pty the poor chinese factory that has to remake the moulds for the toys before they get banned as well for not having a seatbelt.
Wil-E-Coyote to get 're-education' and to learn to only use Acme safety products to show kids that rocket propelled coyotes and dropping boulders on roadrunners is not the way we operate in society.
Or...the parent could actually be a parent to their child rather than expect: tv, the government, social services and the schools to raise their child.
When my son was very young, I remember playing with him with a Tomas the Tank engine wooden train set.
He was holding one of the wooden cut-out type characters and was walking him along the train track.
I pointed it out that it was dangerous walking along the train tracks to which he responded in an almost teenager fashion:
"Dad, its not a real person"
So that was me told. Kids know the difference between reality and fantasy, not that they beyond using fantasy they seen to justify their actions, but then its the parents problem to how they deal with it. Kudos to any kid that rationalizes that way.
Parenting is the problem. That program was probably fine as it was.
You don't see cartoon characters smoking any more do you? Why? because it would be inapropriate, so what's the big problem with a cartoon character wearing a seatbelt. It's not political correctness gone mad, it's just a little bit of common sense from a cartoon that, while it is entertaining, is also supposed to be educational. Children are quite capable of realising that elements of a cartoon are non-real world, but some are real world, they realise that you don't see pigs in skirts driving cars, but you do see people in cars wearing seatbelts.
Not doing something positive, like a pig wearing a seatbelt, is completely different to doing something negative like a pig smoking.
Because its not reality, omitting something in cartoon is forgivable. Same reason a lot of cartoon characters dont wear clothes. BUT, if you make the character do something then its a different matter as it focuses on their action.
So its a ridiculous comment Fraser.
Of course we how Tom and Jerry fits into all this is anothe matter :)
Havent seen my 3 year old rolling around in muddle puddles yet just because peppa does. Although she did go through a stage of running around say gggrrrrr Dinosaur.
Maybe we should complain about In the Night Garden and the fact that Igglepiggle seems to like throwing himself backwards on the floor, I am sure that some kiddies will have tried that and realised that it hurt.
.... UK Christians are up in arms over Waybuloo......
http://blog.echurchwebsites.org.uk/2009/05/19/cbeebies-waybuloo-christian-response/
Obviously their non-monkey/cat/rabbit/bear god would disprove of them learning to stretch and play hide and seek.
And thats not as shocking as being treated to an episode of Big Cook, Little Cook's sinful homoerotic skits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_4F3lJf8T0
Teach kids the value of seatbelts. Do an episode entitled "Peppa through the windscreen" where Peppa, having failed to properly secure herself in the car, goes through the windscreen and ends up as bacon sandwiches and sausages. Problem solved and moral taught.
Paris, 'cos she likes a nice pork sword.
Whenever Dora gets in a car, they all pull on seat belts and say "seat belts -- so we can be safe!" Same thing with life jackets when they get into boats. Consequently, my small children enthusiastically do the same thing, and they remember to be careful around water. Yes, parents should raise kids instead of cartoons, but it *really* makes things easier when Dora is on your side.
I hope that you remember this comment when your kid takes a map, expects it to talk and wanders off in to the forest and expects their backpack to be magically filled with exactly the things they need to get where they are going. And for a wellie-boot wearing, talking, blue monkey to help them.
They've been promoting/doctoring buckling up in cartoons for years:
I got a couple of Hong Kong Phooey VHS tapes a few years back just to relive some nostalic tv I used to watch as a kid, however one of the tapes I began to notice that they always showed the exact same scene of HKP buckling up whenever he got in his car, but not the other tape... the 'buckling up' tape was a newer bumper edition tape whilst the other tape was an original 80s one.
There's a lot of "Parents should...." from a variety of posters on here, some of whom may even have kids. The reality of the situation is that if you believe that, as a parent, you'll have more influence on your kids than their peers and TV, then your views are outdated and wrong. This isn't me saying this, by the way - there's been plenty of research that's lead to this conclusion - hence, among other things, the tip that as far as a child is concerned, they'll be better off in a dysfunctional family living in a good community than in a good family that lives in a bad community.
Yes, I am one of those posters and, yes, I have kids. If any kid of mine tried this sort of crap they would have a simple choice: Wear the belt or walk. I think you'd find the belt went on pretty quickly the first time the kid had to walk a few miles. Often control of your kids boils down to giving them simple choices.
If you allow TV to have more control over your children than you do then I am afraid you are a truly crap parent.
...about things like this is that when 20 million people stand up and complain about something like Internet censorship in Australia or ID cards in Britain, they are completely ignored and ridden over. But when ONE person complains to get something banned or censored the powers-that-be fall over themselves backwards to comply.
If ever you needed proof that the powers of today are determined to rob us all of the last vestige of freedom, it is in that fact right there.
I wonder if this person has complained to the BBC about Ooglies and the fact that the driver of the sleigh pulled by the pyramid tea bags doesn't have a seat belt on? The crew who created Peppa Pig also make Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom. Will they have to change all of those to give Ben a helmet when he flies on Gaston the Ladybird?
This has very serious repercussions. Recently I was watching Botham's Ashes where Sir Beefy smashed Aussie bowling all over the place without a helmet. My lad was sitting next to me signalling boundaries and enjoying it. Then he went over to my cricket crate, pulled out a helmet and asked me why I wear it when I'm playing. I told him and he said "But Sir Beefy didn't wear a helmet". Sir Viv Richards never wore one.
So will all cricket footage sans helmets now be forbidden from broadcasting because of the remote possibility that one kid might say "If Viv Richards and Ian Botham didn't have to wear them then neither will I"?
The one who needs to belt up (get a life and put their child in their place firmly and sensibly) is the person who complained.
Until some kid manages to pull one of the belts loose and chokes on it, thus causing a sudden about turn with many of the same people demanding that the ruling should be removed immediately.
Not just common sense for parents, it should be a requirement for anyone making any kind of formal complaint to pass such a test. Along with all politicians, journalists, news readers... Hang on, I think we've just ruled out the entire media.
I would drive a few feet and brake hard - fast enough for them to fall out of their seat and scare the shit out of them, slow enough that there was no way they would be injured. Then they got the "Imagine if I had been driving fast" lecture. No problem. One demonstration each was enough that now if I start moving before they have their seatbelts on, they get upset.
Really, I wish people would stop asking the television to do their parenting for them, and to AndrewH, studies can show as much as they like that telly has an influence over children, but we're talking about pre-school children here. The biggest influence on a pre-school child should be its parents and siblings. They don't do peer-pressure at that age, they barely notice each other. Television only has more influence if you as a parent allow the television to do the raising of your child. Notice that the parent still has the control here...
I was driving along yesterday when my son leant forward to fiddle with something. I told him to sit up straight. To do otherwise, I told him, is dangerous. Five minutes later a stupid bint in a BMW coming the other way decided it was a good idea to overtake a cyclist on a blind bend. Cue extremely hard braking. Son complains that the seatbelt hurt his shoulder. So I asked him what would have happened if he'd been leaning forwards at the time. "I'd have banged my head."
"Dead right kid. You never know when you're going to need to brake hard so don't do it again." Lesson learned by the four year old.
Unfortunately I suspect that the young woman in the BMW will not learn a lesson because she got away with it. And from her reaction it was clear that she didn't think the incident was her fault. Who'd like to bet that she grew up with similar parents to the woman who complained about Peppa Pig? The sort of people who teach their kids that they are not responsible for anything bad that happens to them.
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