As the proud owner of a three-year-old, I have noticed something that I admit, I should have noticed a very long time ago; most of these shows for kids are about animals. From the purple dinosaur to the mouse to the rabbit, all these popular shows over the past 40 years have had animals as central characters.

What’s even more puzzling as when the TV is on, and it doesn’t have some type of odd colored animal as the feature, the kids usually have absolutely no interest in it. But look out if you flip the channel to one of these channels that has cartoons and all of a sudden, their heads turn and they are instantly turned into zombies. I’m Ok with that sometimes because in our house, we are news junkies and occasionally, something comes on such as war coverage or what the movie Demolition Man called MDK. Murder, Death Kill. If they have no interest in that, that’s fine…

Many of us grew up with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester and Tweety and others. A few other classics were Grape Ape, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Woody Woodpecker, Underdog, Porky Pig and Scooby-doo. Are you seeing a trend?? Are you longing for the days of great cartoons?? Are you thinking some of these could have been your pet?

If you spend any time with your young kids now and flip on any of these channels you’ll no doubt see some of the very same animals and maybe a few new ones. Mickey Mouse is still very popular of course. How could he not be with a whole empire counting on him? Disney has seen some of these characters stand the test of time including Winnie the Pooh and his gang of super sleuths… One of kids’ favorites right now is the Backyardigans. Why do I know this? It’s on in my house all the time. With great music and dancing, it’s a great show for your young kids to learn and move around at the same time. And, they have a bunch of pet-like creatures. A penguin, hippo, moose, kangaroo and a character called Uniqua that no one knows what she is.

So tell us; why do kids respond so well to animated pets and animals and not to Home and Garden TV? We’d love your thoughts…

By David Greenwood