1. You don’t need to worry about non-sense speaking characters

Lots of children’s shows feature characters that speak in gibberish or in complete grammatical violation of the English language. My daughter is in love with the Swedish show “Pingu” where the characters speak gibberish animal language so the viewer can piece the story together through the visual cues.

I’m not worried about Pingu ruining Elle’s language development and I have science on my side. I remember when I was a teenager and I heard about parents freaking out over the Teletubbies butchering proper speaking, so when I first saw Pingu I was initially concerned.. However, we don’t have anything to worry about. Language development comes from interacting with other people (or a computer program). It is the two-way communication that teaches a child language. The child might pick up some new “words” from the show, but the show won’t damage the child’s learned linguistics.

2. Being a guest on Sesame Street is an honor

If you’re a young parent in 2011 it’s guaranteed that if you watched TV as a child you watched Sesame Street. There’s also a good chance that your parents watched Sesame Street as a child too. A children’s show that makes it to three seasons is considered successful, but Sesame Street is on its third generation of viewers. So if you get the opportunity to be on a show you watched as a child you should take it seriously and be a professional about it. Not naming names, but a few guests didn’t do that.

3. Murray Wiggle is an excellent guitarist and makes the show tolerable.

Murray Wiggle of “The Wiggles” is a fantastic guitarist. I’ve probably lost a lot of respect from my follow musicians, but Murray Wiggle has got “chops.” It may not be as big of a deal for most people, but a sweet guitar lick thrown in to a song about eating your vegetables introduces children to complex music. It also sounds pretty cool if you ask me.

4. The “Swipper” character is a real jerk.

Six months ago I didn’t know what “Dora the Explorer” was and didn't know about the show’s villain “Swipper.” After watching a few episodes of the show with Elle, I’ve come to the conclusion that the villain “Swipper” is a jerk. He steals things from Dora and her friends—things they need—just because he likes stealing them. Usually when he succeeds at pilfering he just ditches the stolen item so no one can have it. He has no redeeming qualities.

5. NetFlix streaming is the best thing to ever happen to kids TV.

Why is NetFlix so great? Neflix gives you total control over what your child is watching so Barney only has to exist if you let him. Netflix works nicely because you can take an approach of presenting your child with more or new shows to watch. This means you spend your time figuring out which shows you want your child to watch instead of worrying about keeping them from watching the shows you don’t want them to watch.

Also, the $8 a month cost for a streaming only package is a lot cheaper than cable AND you don’t have to worry about commercials.