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The great Baby Einstein scam


The great Baby Einstein scam by Mira Jacob, Shine staff, 22 hours ago

Of course it was too good to be true.

The New York Times reported Thursday that Disney is offering a refund to buyers of its ubiquitous “Baby Einstein” videos, which did not, as promised, turn babies into wunderkinds. Apparently, all those puppets, bright colors, and songs were what we had feared all along—a mind-numbing way to occupy infants.

This news has rocked the parenting world, which had embraced the videos as a miraculous child-rearing staple. Videos that make your kid smarter while you prepare dinner? Genius!

Or not. According to the article, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under two years old stay away from watching screens. In the letter threatening Disney with a class-action lawsuit for "deceptive advertising," public health lawyers hired by Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood cited a study which found a link between early television exposure and later problems with attention span.

For many parents, this was the most unsettling of "duh" moments, and a confirmation that nothing, when it comes to child-rearing, is as ever easy as we'd like to make it. So why were we so quick to seize on Baby Einstein videos as technological tutors?

Call it the perfect storm of parenting. Who doesn’t want to believe that there is a magical, wondrous, no-parental-guidance-required product that will turn their kids into Mensa members? The combination of our lack of time, our paranoia over our kids performance, and our faith in technology primed this generation of parents to accept the clever advertising around "Baby Einstein" as truth, just as parents before us have seized on corporal punishment, or the teachings of Dr. Spock.

Still, the idea that a caper this big could be pulled off (according to the Times, in “a 2003 study, a third of all American babies from 6 months to 2 years old had at least one 'Baby Einstein' video") is mind-boggling. Disney’s refund is about as close as we’re going to get to an actual admission that we were sold snake oil, and it casts a pall over the other "educational" toys out there.

So now what? Lose the Leapfrog? Whisk away the Wii? How do you plan on keeping (or cutting out) technology in your child's life?


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"The combination of our lack of time, our paranoia over our kids performance, and our faith in technology primed this generation" for a "no-parental-guidance-required product."

I kind of manipulated the text for my own amusement. I think my sentence sums up the article very well.

It just goes to show there are many adults who should not be having children based on the fact that they really do not have the time or finances required to raise a family.

LOL! Didn't Bush acknowledge the founder of this BS in one of his many awful a speeches? Figures, huh?

I'm not sure how they can call Baby Einstein a "scam". I mean, it's just a set of videos, and we all know of the reports that children should not watch TV, and we all know that no video can make you smart -- so parents just bought a dumb product, because they want to transfer their job as parents to a TV, guilt-free. They're dumb, they're not victims of a scam.

And yes, you'll have to get rid of the Leapfrog. Really -- reading with an electronic pen that tells you the words??!?!??! Sounds like a lazy way to not ever learn to read, or only pretend to learn to read.

Nice thoughts PG!

Imagine that, lazy parents thought they could plop their kids in front of the TV, pop in some videos and their kids would turn out to be brilliant!

I used to just shake my head when I would see those ads on TV. Plopping an infant in front of the TV is not going to turn them into little geniuses.

Maybe the parents that thought this should watch a couple of the videos LOL

I've seen those Leapfrog ads. When I was a kid my parents actually took the time to read to me. Gasp! I guess nowadays no one wants to be bothered with actual child-rearing. They just want the DNA trophy without the effort.

Why do they have any of those videos and games anyway?
Everyone I talk to seems to have kids that are brilliant, creative, top-of-the-class, in the school for the gifted, geniuses anyway.

Quote:I've seen those Leapfrog ads. When I was a kid my parents actually took the time to read to me

As soon as I learned to read my mom would no longer read to me -- she made me sit on the couch and read to her! When I struggled in math she got flashcards and worked with me and paid the lady across the street (a former math teacher) to tutor me. She took the time to make sure we were learning and improving our development. Mind you, we did watch quite a bit of TV but mom never expected it to make us smarter.

I remember those ads as well. While I do think Disney is a particularly malevolent entity, the blame really falls on the parents who'd rather plug a tape in rather than do their job as being parents. Of course that would mean making lifestyle changes and god forbid they do that.

I remember my grandfather specifically making time to read to me and having me read to him. He must have spent countless hours doing this and oddly enough my literacy rate is quite high. The biggest thing that he did was to read himself and encourage me to read as well. I really do credit him for my love of books and writing in general.

I saw in the NYT an editorial yesterday - the guy said that the parents who bought the Einstein baby videos weren't Einstein's themselves! LOL - he nailed it.

Well, I have Asperger's Syndrome, and I am quite well socialized. I was diagnosed when I was 21 years old. I barely scraped by in the school system, but I did well with topics which were my "Asperger obsessions". Anyway, I was above average with reading and spelling. Why? My parents read books to me every night. Every payday, they took me to get a new book and that was very exciting. I watched television, but not as much as children today. I babysit a 10-year-old and her spelling is atrocious, and she can barely read.