Have you ever taken a moment and thought about the viewing habits of toddlers? I knew that my toddler had some unique viewing habits since he likes to watch gaming, painting instruction, and nature videos with us; however, I didn’t realize how intriguing his own preferences are until we spent time this evening snuggling and watching Roku. The first thing he wanted to watch on YouTube was today’s Daily Mass. LilKsby doesn’t just watch any Mass. He wants to see the St Thomas the Apostle West Springfield, Massachusetts Daily Mass with the picture of the stain glass window featuring a lamb and a sepia toned picture of Jesus. Don’t pick the wrong Mass; that simply will not do! Next, we watched some Cocomelon on YouTube. He didn’t want to watch a full episode, but he did want to watch “Ten Little Buses”, “The ABC Song”, and “The Lunch Song”. We rounded out our evening by starting to watch the Daniel Tiger movie that’s on Amazon Prime.
Before you go thinking “Wow, The Great Kaysby lets her kid watch too much TV”, I want you to realize that we only watched about 45 minutes as we snuggled after dinner and simultaneously played with toys. Although he didn’t play with toys during the 20 minutes of Daily Mass. He’s always to busy mimicking the priest’s hand motions to play with toys then. Now with that disclaimer out of the way, I think it is interesting to think about what LilKsby’s viewing preferences say about him. One, he obviously likes shows that he can interact with while watching. Aside from the pretty lamb, I think he likes watching the Daily Mass because of the call and response aspect. It makes him feel like he’s socializing and participating in a conversation. In his mind Daily Mass is developing social skills. Secondly, it is obvious that LilKsby knows what topics he likes. This was evident by him choosing which segments he wanted to see of Cocomelon. I love that the segments he picked had specific things that I know he likes. For example, “Ten Little Buses” features an orange cat that steals toys. LilKsby has two orange kitties that he loves! They also steal stuff if you aren’t looking! He also loves food including the chicken nuggets and dumplings shown in the “The Lunch Song”! Finally, I can tell that Daniel Tiger is important to him because he loves family. One of his favorite things to do is watch how Daniel’s family interacts with one another. LilKsby also loves when Daniel wants to make believe! I never thought about the unique ways that LilKsby connects with his viewing choices until tonight, but now I can’t stop thinking about them!
So I’m curious, do other toddlers have similar viewing habits? Do other toddlers pick shows to watch because of such unique elements? What makes a toddler know what they prefer to watch? Is it really that different than when adults pick a favorite show? What’s your toddler watching?
Until my next random thought!
XOXO,
The Great Kaysby
The Great Kaysby 