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So when your kids are little, and you own a television, you eventually, are going to watch a large variety of cartoons. When my son was the only one here, we’d sit together and watch the gentle cartoons… Franklin, Little Bear, Maggie and the Ferocious Beast, the Wiggles, Bob the Builder…

As he got older, his taste has evolved, where we now include The Fairly Odd Parents, Scooby Doo, Tom & Jerry, Popeye, Superman…

His younger sister has watched these right along with him. She has always been more demanding, and aggressive than he has, but I attribute that to personality, not that she’s watching more sophisticated cartoons than he was at her age. But my ramblings aren’t about her this morning. Not really.

What worries me, is that as his taste in entertainment gets bored with the current status, what shows remain on the listings as available for his age. The ‘powers that be’ have rating guidelines like movies so I can see what they recommend for 7 years and up. But what I don’t like is all the FV’s underneath the TV7s. Fantasy Violence.

It almost seems that is about the only option after you outgrow Barney. From “I love you, you love me” straight to aggressive action is the only way to deal with problems. I don’t think watching these cartoons will turn your kids into monsters, unless the parents are encouraging monster like behavior. I’m just upset that there aren’t more choices. Where are the shows for older kids interested in science? Where are the shows for older kids interested in fantasy without the violence? Where are the shows that teach kids how to love the world?

Yes, my son likes Good Eats and Iron Chef, yes, he likes the animal shows on the Discovery Channel. The Magic School Bus is entertaining, but only when you see the episode the first four times, after that… not so much. Zoom comes close, but the format is stagnant, old, and doesn’t appeal to my son who is more enthralled with cartoons, or claymation.

In a few years, I’ll have to go into all the That’s so Raven Shows and the other non-options geared towards girls. Yes, they have FV geared towards girls as well. But they also don’t have sociological, science shows as an option. Ugh.

So if anyone out there knows of any show’s I should check out. Let me know. Course, after he learns to read, maybe we’ll just get rid of the tv, and stick with books. I know there is variety there.