by Sara Sarasohn

description
Simon and Schuster

Olivia, as she appears on the cover of the first book.

The other day I needed to anesthetize my pre-schooler.

I mean, I didn't have childcare and I needed her to sit very quietly in the next room while I was in a community meeting. I figured I could download a couple of TV shows from iTunes for her to watch on my iPod.

I don't like to download TV shows from iTunes. I pay a lot of money for satellite TV and a DVR, so it hits me the wrong way that iTunes charges me $1.99 for shows I have already paid DirecTV for. However, this was a child care emergency.

 

My daughter sat in my lap as we surfed around iTunes. On the page with the kids' TV shows she saw Olivia, a character she knows from books. We'd never known she had a TV show. I shelled out nearly four bucks for 46 minutes' worth of child-numbing computer animation.

It totally worked, in more ways than one. She was quiet during the meeting. She loved the show so much she asked me for more. I hated the idea of paying another $1.99 for another 23 minutes of Olivia, so I fired up the DVR and found out that she's on TV every morning at 8:30. I set it up to record.

The next day when I needed to tranquilize my daughter again so I could get some quality time with my email, I put Olivia on the DVR for her. Thirteen minutes into the show, I heard the reason we'd never seen the show before iTunes: it's on a Nickelodeon channel with commercials.

I hate, hate, hate letting my little kids watch commercials on TV. My son, who is nine, is old enough to understand that a commercial is a trick trying to get you to buy something you don't need. My daughter is still four and not, in my estimation, capable of that same kind of critical watching. So I keep her on the channels without commercials, mostly PBS Kids and Noggin.

For my daughter, watching Olivia is brainwashing, coming and going. I'm trying to shut her up with electronic entertainment on my iPod. Then, when she's watching TV, Nickelodeon is selling her pink plastic junk.

For me, I'm paying three times. I'm paying that huge satellite TV bill. I'm paying iTunes for a show I already paid DirecTV for. And I'm going to have to pay for that piece of pink plastic junk my daughter is going to beg me for because I let her watch the Nickelodeon commercials.