Childhood Ruined

            I used to get so excited to watch TV as a child.  Disney channel had it all.  The best thing you could see while watching TV was the kid doing the splits in the air because it meant a Disney channel original movie was about to start.  The other best thing you could see was the list of what would be on next and after that.  The shows like Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, That’s So Raven, Kim Possible, Lizzie Maguire, The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, and many more shows made life a little easier.  Nickelodeon had TV shows like Drake and Josh, Zoey 101, Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide, and more.  My cable box used to be filled all the time with the recordings of the shows I would be missing while I was at school.  I liked the kind of shows where the main character was a normal girl AND a rock star (Hannah Montana).  I liked the funny shows like Drake and Josh and Ned’s Declassified.  Those were just the TV shows.  The movies on Disney were always just as good. The High School Musical movie trilogy were Disney originals.  I still watch and sing along to this day! Holes and Cadet Kelly were “classics” too.

            What I’ve come to see now are shows like A.N.T. Farm (cancelled in May), Dog with a Blog, Fish Hooks (which finished back in April), Liv & Maddie, and other shows that I could never find appealing as a child.  A.N.T. Farm was about younger kids who were really advanced and talented who were put into High School.  I didn’t even contemplate Middle School while I watched my Disney shows as a kid, let alone High School.  Fish Hooks is about three FISH who actually go to High School.  I think the title, “Dog with a Blog” explains it all.  A talking dog who blogs about life.  I feel like kids are being deprived of the shows I used to watch at that age.  I understand it’s a different time, but the old shows were so good!

  Of course all kid shows have a moral of the story and put in as many life lessons as they could, but I feel like the life lessons have changed.  What I learned from my childhood shows were things like family and friends come first, you succeed if you try and put your mind to it, and don’t lose hope.  All of the shows I watched had all of that while making it entertaining.  I can see that shows nowadays still have lessons built into the episode but it doesn’t seem to be the same.  I think the shows are pushing kids into growing up too fast and education is most important.  While in a sense, that true, but you learn that as you get older.  As a kid, I think the most important values are to be good and your friends and family are your number one through life.  Granted I don’t spend all my time watching children shows now, but from what I’ve heard and the little I’ve seen make me question the values being pushed on a child now.