DVD – Baby Einstein

☻☻☻☻☺
(four smiley faces out of five)

The Baby Einstein series of videos are targeted toward children aged a few months to about three years old. They consist of music—often classical—paired with the actions of brightly colored puppets and toys, and sometimes live-action shots of animals or babies or children. Each Baby Einstein video focuses on a particular theme, such as Beethoven or Mozart or animals or shapes or language. Besides videos, Baby Einstein produces toys and books. The Baby Einstein videos were started by mom Julie Clark and are now owned by Disney, though Ms. Clark is still in charge of the Baby Einstein company.

Now, there is some controversy surrounding the Baby Einstein videos. Some people think it’s horrifying to actually try to engage babies in television watching. And I do have to say that I always thought it was disturbing that these DVDs had as a menu option to either “Play Once” (ummm … yes, please) or “Repeat” (Seriously? What freakoid is putting his or her baby in front of a repeating Baby Einstein video, and why would the company even make that a menu option?). But maybe they’ve stopped doing that now; it’s been a few years since I’ve watched one.

Just yesterday I heard on NPR that the company is offering full refunds to anyone who purchased a Baby Einstein video between June 5, 2004 and September 4, 2009, because apparently an activist group (okay, mostly Harvard psychology professor Susan Linn) didn’t like that Baby Einstein was insinuating that its videos are educational. The Baby Einstein company denies ever claiming that their videos are educational, but c’mon. They’re called Baby EINSTEIN and Einstein was no idiot.

Obviously, making the decision to let your baby watch television is a highly personal one. Some people are going to be dead set against it, and that’s okay. It’s a free country.

But when you have a baby like mine, one who’s fussy and wants to be held and entertained all the time, it’s like a miracle to occasionally be able to put on a video and get a 30-minute break. I looked at it this way: the videos could shake a succession of toys and puppets in my baby’s face faster than I could, and the videos seemed to have a soothing effect on her. I never, ever thought of the videos as being educational, so I personally don’t even care about the whole educational vs. not educational controversy. Sometimes I just desperately needed a short respite from being a physically exhausted basket-case of a new mother.

And, as a sleep-deprived new parent, I have to say that I never minded watching the Baby Einstein videos with my baby/young child. Even if there was a segment I didn’t care for, I knew the next segment would be coming up quickly, and sometimes the animals and kids and toys are cute. The puppet work in the Baby Einstein videos is so-so.

Ultimately, you’ll have to be the one to decide whether or not to let your very young child should watch these videos. But if you do decide to purchase any Baby Einstein videos, I think you’ll find them not only tolerable, but on some days, the only thing that saves your sanity.