Oh sure my kids LOVE watching Caillou. In fact his existence is the only reason I have ten minutes to write this post. However,

I do believe that he is seriously damaging my children. Why?

1) His mother. She never raises her voice let alone yells. Or shows any signs of stress. Even when Caillou forgets to tell her he needs his sled for school until they are about to walk out the door.

2) His teacher. She smiles at the fact he forgot his sled and suggests they turn a box into a toboggan. And it works. It doesn’t break get wet or anything else logical. Which gives my daredevil the idea to try sliding down our dirt hill in a moving box.

3) Time. In the land of Caillou time must stand still because walking all the way back to the ice cream parlor after leaving a new toy on the bench is apparently no problem. Even if your sister gets an ice cream cone and you don’t. At four years old Caillou is completely ok with this because he got ice cream four hours ago! Four year olds in the real world don’t recall what happened four minutes ago.

4) His sister Rosy. She never has a meltdown or tears off her diaper in public. Therefore interfering with any of Caillou’s activities. In fact the one time she was sick she stayed in bed all day. No whining and clinging to Mommy’s leg while she tries to do the laundry.

5) Caillou He never feeds the fish for the second time this morning after Rosy already did it. Risking the lives of the brand new fish his mother has been struggling to keep alive since Christmas. Oh wait that is my life.

But really. It is going to take years (as in reaching adulthood and having children of their own kind of years) before my kids realize that life in Caillou’s world is not one of reality. The dishes are always done, the explanations are always calm and logical, no one ever gets a time out, and the parents never have bags under their eyes.

What gives?

Is television damaging your kids too?