Paw Patrol - Seems soulless, I haven’t watched much, but there seems something very wrong about it. Intuitively, I feel like my kid shouldn’t watch it (though, I can could be convinced I’m wrong, if I am)
Cocomelon - objectively soulless - don’t try to convince me that this show is anything but toddler crack.
Approved:
Sesame Street
Bluey
Both of the above shows seem to me like they are made with care and have the best interests to teaching children good morals and language skills.
Some folks mention about certain cartoons portraying parents (dad/mom) as dumb, but this can be very much said about many of the Cocomelon episodes (e.g. take the “are you lying? ha ha ha” as it being a joke to do something and then lie to your parent about it).
That being said, I would suggest checking out
Old School Pokemon: many, many, many episodes and can be found fairly easily online
Tina and Tony
Kit and Kate
PJ Masks Shorts
Octonauts
Wild Kratts
The Fixies: while it originates from Russia, it is surprisingly very good and non-political; each episode is basically a lesson of how an item works with the little screws and bolts that transform into beings and fix items around the house.
Robocar Poli: originating from Korea but is well dubbed
Fairyteens: this one is for slightly older kids and can be a hit/miss
Caillou – whiny child and permissive parents; teaches nothing
Peppa Pig – same
Approved:
Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood – I have yet to meet a show that covers social and emotional topics for toddlers better than the Mr. Roger’s franchise and this is its latest iteration. There’s a Daniel Tiger for every situation and one can learn to be a better parent simply by watching how Daddy Tiger or Mommy Tiger respond to situations. The songs still carry important emotional regulation messages that adults can use.
One show that we always encouraged our kids (especially our youngest, who just couldn’t get enough) to watch was Number Blocks. Honestly I feel like that show is the number 1 reason he does so well in math today.
I know I am late to the original conversation but that show awakened my children to numbers and math so much so they stole the calculator out of my office to play with at bedtime.
My kids are older now but when they were young they liked:
Puffin Rock (Netflix in the US) - wholesome, family looking out for each other
Sarah and Duck (Amazon) - super low conflict, cute, very mild
Octonauts (Netflix I think?) - science-y adventure
We tried to get them into various PBS shows also. Daniel Tiger was okay, but now Bluey puts it to shame. They liked Dora for a while. We liked Molly of Denali but my husband is from Alaska so he had a soft spot for it. The older PBS shows are extremely formulaic which is attractive for a toddler but not for the parents.
We didn’t get Paw Patrol but it was kind of the forbidden fruit because of that, and whenever we were on vacation and the tv had cable, they wanted to watch it. But they also realized pretty fast that it was kind of boring. We stayed away from Peppa and Calliou because of what I’d read on Reddit.
This makes it sound like my kids watched a lot of tv! Probably too much to be honest but not as much as I’m making it sound.
My kids are much older now, but we always supported them watching Dinosaur Train, in which the clearly independently wealthy Pteranodon family with their adopted son (a t-rex) go on a mysteriously large number of vacations via a maybe-magical train to visit other dinosaurs in various climates and time periods.
We also liked PBS’s Word Girl, which mixes superpowers and grammar with kind of a Rocky and Bullwinkle style humor.
We loathed Octonauts and especially Littlest Pet Shop, both of which, sadly, my kids really enjoyed.
Two year old, she hasn’t watched Paw Patrol but oddly enough she has a golden book with three Paw Patrol stories in it. I hate reading it and she gets bored of it easily but still like to go back to it for whatever reason-- I’ve come to spice things to by reading it with overly dramatic voice and pacing (with dramatic… Pauses). She tends to prefer books, so I’m lucky.
I haven’t had to ban anything, but she mostly likes kids songs (e.g. Simple Songs). My mom likes to show her Ukrainian show Masha and the Bear, and since my kids half Japanese, we often do a show called Shinapushu. All on YouTube.
But, I even have her around when I’m watching stuff I want to watch, like Last Week Tonight. She repeats the occasional swear word but I’m pretty indifferent about that, I’m much more worried about her shouting “Clock” because she doesn’t pronounce the “l” and has a tendency to point and shout it excitedly. I often have to quickly say, loudly, “yes V, it’s a CLOCK.”
I used to be anti-paw patrol but I’ve softened on that over time. It’s a bit soulless, but it’s not too bad. my daughter loves the catchphrases and frankly, the repetitiveness is part of the fun for her.
Show that I have loved:
super simple songs - aimed at cocomelon-age but it’s got a very high quality production, really lovely varying different video styles, much better music and songs, and in general much better everything. would recommend it over cocomelon any day.
mr men - there’s a ‘newer’ version of the show which is really quite good
pink panther - the old shows hold up surprisingly well but there’s a set of newer cartoons that are great fun too
spidey and amazing friends - my daughter is now the biggest spiderman fan because of it and i’ve found she also enjoys watching clips from the MCU/spiderverse films with me because of it. 10/10 recommended.
om nom & stories - bit weird how i remember this as the ‘cut the rope game character’ but as far as animation goes it’s really high quality.
super wings - relaly high quality animated show. like absurdly well rendered and exciting.
airport diaries - as an adult, it’s a bit odd. the stories are like half-formed and the animation and everything a bit janky. but my daughter is obsessed by talking planes at an airport so she loves it and i guess that’s what matters.
I have no problem with paw patrol. Silly situations and the movies are fun too . Spidey and friends is very cute too . Lately my 6 year old wants to watch random Minecraft creators I just make sure he stays away from the weird side of YouTube.
I have YouTube premium so he Nevers sees an ad . I raised him to hate ads just like me . For me it’s the weird content where they sexualize characters from kids shows . He have them constantly in danger of dying .you can search anything kids related and scroll down slightly and get the weirdest stuff
Banned: agree with your list, also Peppa pig (except if we’re on holiday somewhere) because it’s absolutely dire, and Bing (everywhere), because I can’t stand him.
Approved: Bluey, Gravity Falls, Sarah & Duck, Abney & Teal… most of CBeebies tbh.
I’m ok with them watching Adventure Time, but my wife is not, so that falls under both lists maybe
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Some folks mention about certain cartoons portraying parents (dad/mom) as dumb, but this can be very much said about many of the Cocomelon episodes (e.g. take the “are you lying? ha ha ha” as it being a joke to do something and then lie to your parent about it).
That being said, I would suggest checking out
Banned:
Caillou – whiny child and permissive parents; teaches nothing
Peppa Pig – same
Approved:
One show that we always encouraged our kids (especially our youngest, who just couldn’t get enough) to watch was Number Blocks. Honestly I feel like that show is the number 1 reason he does so well in math today.
Number Blocks is phenomenal. Glad to see it getting representation.
I know I am late to the original conversation but that show awakened my children to numbers and math so much so they stole the calculator out of my office to play with at bedtime.
Ha! My youngest would always ask to play with the calculator app on my phone. I wonder if it’s related to the show’s influence?
My kids are older now but when they were young they liked:
Puffin Rock (Netflix in the US) - wholesome, family looking out for each other
Sarah and Duck (Amazon) - super low conflict, cute, very mild
Octonauts (Netflix I think?) - science-y adventure
We tried to get them into various PBS shows also. Daniel Tiger was okay, but now Bluey puts it to shame. They liked Dora for a while. We liked Molly of Denali but my husband is from Alaska so he had a soft spot for it. The older PBS shows are extremely formulaic which is attractive for a toddler but not for the parents.
We didn’t get Paw Patrol but it was kind of the forbidden fruit because of that, and whenever we were on vacation and the tv had cable, they wanted to watch it. But they also realized pretty fast that it was kind of boring. We stayed away from Peppa and Calliou because of what I’d read on Reddit.
This makes it sound like my kids watched a lot of tv! Probably too much to be honest but not as much as I’m making it sound.
My kids are much older now, but we always supported them watching Dinosaur Train, in which the clearly independently wealthy Pteranodon family with their adopted son (a t-rex) go on a mysteriously large number of vacations via a maybe-magical train to visit other dinosaurs in various climates and time periods.
We also liked PBS’s Word Girl, which mixes superpowers and grammar with kind of a Rocky and Bullwinkle style humor.
We loathed Octonauts and especially Littlest Pet Shop, both of which, sadly, my kids really enjoyed.
Dinosaur Train is an objectively great show and the music in it SLAPS
Action pack is an ok intro to super heroes without much violence.
Lego city is pretty good once they get to older toddler. No real violence and there is humour that both kids and parents can enjoy.
Until around age 7 at minimum i’d avoid Lego ninja and Lego dreams. Both have direct violence from one living creature to another.
We ban peppa pig as it poem treats the dad as stupid.
Paw patrok, we allow but it’s propaganda, however mostly the message for kids is good. Bravery, coooerarion, environment.
Bluey is a favorite for kids and adults.
Gravity falls, owl house and Steven universe are fun and inckusive but the kids aren’t mad for them.
When okder, avatar and ninjago are fine but as others said, they portray viokence.
Hey duggie is good for little kids rather than cocomelon. Come to think of it most of the bbc stuff is good.
My new favourite typo <3
Two year old, she hasn’t watched Paw Patrol but oddly enough she has a golden book with three Paw Patrol stories in it. I hate reading it and she gets bored of it easily but still like to go back to it for whatever reason-- I’ve come to spice things to by reading it with overly dramatic voice and pacing (with dramatic… Pauses). She tends to prefer books, so I’m lucky.
I haven’t had to ban anything, but she mostly likes kids songs (e.g. Simple Songs). My mom likes to show her Ukrainian show Masha and the Bear, and since my kids half Japanese, we often do a show called Shinapushu. All on YouTube.
But, I even have her around when I’m watching stuff I want to watch, like Last Week Tonight. She repeats the occasional swear word but I’m pretty indifferent about that, I’m much more worried about her shouting “Clock” because she doesn’t pronounce the “l” and has a tendency to point and shout it excitedly. I often have to quickly say, loudly, “yes V, it’s a CLOCK.”
I used to be anti-paw patrol but I’ve softened on that over time. It’s a bit soulless, but it’s not too bad. my daughter loves the catchphrases and frankly, the repetitiveness is part of the fun for her.
Show that I have loved:
super simple songs - aimed at cocomelon-age but it’s got a very high quality production, really lovely varying different video styles, much better music and songs, and in general much better everything. would recommend it over cocomelon any day.
mr men - there’s a ‘newer’ version of the show which is really quite good
pink panther - the old shows hold up surprisingly well but there’s a set of newer cartoons that are great fun too
spidey and amazing friends - my daughter is now the biggest spiderman fan because of it and i’ve found she also enjoys watching clips from the MCU/spiderverse films with me because of it. 10/10 recommended.
om nom & stories - bit weird how i remember this as the ‘cut the rope game character’ but as far as animation goes it’s really high quality.
super wings - relaly high quality animated show. like absurdly well rendered and exciting.
airport diaries - as an adult, it’s a bit odd. the stories are like half-formed and the animation and everything a bit janky. but my daughter is obsessed by talking planes at an airport so she loves it and i guess that’s what matters.
i’m sure there’s more but that’s a solid list.
I have no problem with paw patrol. Silly situations and the movies are fun too . Spidey and friends is very cute too . Lately my 6 year old wants to watch random Minecraft creators I just make sure he stays away from the weird side of YouTube.
yeah, i get that worry. there’s a lot of great stuff for all ages on youtube but lately the ads feel increasingly active and punishing.
I have YouTube premium so he Nevers sees an ad . I raised him to hate ads just like me . For me it’s the weird content where they sexualize characters from kids shows . He have them constantly in danger of dying .you can search anything kids related and scroll down slightly and get the weirdest stuff
lord almighty that’s insane. yeah i’m so glad i’ve never come across that before!
Banned: agree with your list, also Peppa pig (except if we’re on holiday somewhere) because it’s absolutely dire, and Bing (everywhere), because I can’t stand him.
Approved: Bluey, Gravity Falls, Sarah & Duck, Abney & Teal… most of CBeebies tbh.
I’m ok with them watching Adventure Time, but my wife is not, so that falls under both lists maybe
Adventure time MUST be curated.
Many episodes are fine for toddlers.
Many episodes are NOT fine, even for adults.
Unless you’ve watched the whole series, you won’t understand how fucked up this show is.
In the episode Hug Wolf, Finn transforms into a werewolf and rapes Cinnamon Bun, because CB can’t control their rape fetish
And that’s not even mentioning the cosmic horror. The Lich is one of the scariest villains of all time.
I would recommend Mike the Knight and the Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That. Pikwik Pack, and Grizzy & the Lemmings