Parenting

One show that we always encouraged our kids (especially our youngest, who just couldn’t get enough) to watch was Number Blocks. Honestly I feel like that show is the number 1 reason he does so well in math today.

I used to be anti-paw patrol but I've softened on that over time. It's a bit soulless, but it's not too bad. my daughter loves the catchphrases and frankly, the repetitiveness is part of the fun for her.

Show that I have loved:

super simple songs - aimed at cocomelon-age but it's got a very high quality production, really lovely varying different video styles, much better music and songs, and in general much better everything. would recommend it over cocomelon any day.

mr men - there's a 'newer' version of the show which is really quite good

pink panther - the old shows hold up surprisingly well but there's a set of newer cartoons that are great fun too

spidey and amazing friends - my daughter is now the biggest spiderman fan because of it and i've found she also enjoys watching clips from the MCU/spiderverse films with me because of it. 10/10 recommended.

om nom & stories - bit weird how i remember this as the 'cut the rope game character' but as far as animation goes it's really high quality.

super wings - relaly high quality animated show. like absurdly well rendered and exciting.

airport diaries - as an adult, it's a bit odd. the stories are like half-formed and the animation and everything a bit janky. but my daughter is obsessed by talking planes at an airport so she loves it and i guess that's what matters.

i'm sure there's more but that's a solid list.

My kids are much older now, but we always supported them watching Dinosaur Train, in which the clearly independently wealthy Pteranodon family with their adopted son (a t-rex) go on a mysteriously large number of vacations via a maybe-magical train to visit other dinosaurs in various climates and time periods.

We also liked PBS’s Word Girl, which mixes superpowers and grammar with kind of a Rocky and Bullwinkle style humor.

We loathed Octonauts and especially Littlest Pet Shop, both of which, sadly, my kids really enjoyed.

My kids are older now but when they were young they liked:

Puffin Rock (Netflix in the US) - wholesome, family looking out for each other

Sarah and Duck (Amazon) - super low conflict, cute, very mild

Octonauts (Netflix I think?) - science-y adventure

We tried to get them into various PBS shows also. Daniel Tiger was okay, but now Bluey puts it to shame. They liked Dora for a while. We liked Molly of Denali but my husband is from Alaska so he had a soft spot for it. The older PBS shows are extremely formulaic which is attractive for a toddler but not for the parents.

We didn’t get Paw Patrol but it was kind of the forbidden fruit because of that, and whenever we were on vacation and the tv had cable, they wanted to watch it. But they also realized pretty fast that it was kind of boring. We stayed away from Peppa and Calliou because of what I’d read on Reddit.

This makes it sound like my kids watched a lot of tv! Probably too much to be honest but not as much as I’m making it sound.

Some folks mention about certain cartoons portraying parents (dad/mom) as dumb, but this can be very much said about many of the Cocomelon episodes (e.g. take the "are you lying? ha ha ha" as it being a joke to do something and then lie to your parent about it).

That being said, I would suggest checking out

• Old School Pokemon: many, many, many episodes and can be found fairly easily online
• Tina and Tony
• Kit and Kate
• PJ Masks Shorts
• Octonauts
• Wild Kratts
• The Fixies: while it originates from Russia, it is surprisingly very good and non-political; each episode is basically a lesson of how an item works with the little screws and bolts that transform into beings and fix items around the house.
• Robocar Poli: originating from Korea but is well dubbed
• Fairyteens: this one is for slightly older kids and can be a hit/miss

We ban peppa pig as it poem treats the dad as stupid.

Paw patrok, we allow but it's propaganda, however mostly the message for kids is good. Bravery, coooerarion, environment.

Bluey is a favorite for kids and adults.

Gravity falls, owl house and Steven universe are fun and inckusive but the kids aren't mad for them.

When okder, avatar and ninjago are fine but as others said, they portray viokence.

Hey duggie is good for little kids rather than cocomelon. Come to think of it most of the bbc stuff is good.

Banned: agree with your list, also Peppa pig (except if we're on holiday somewhere) because it's absolutely dire, and Bing (everywhere), because I can't stand him.

Approved: Bluey, Gravity Falls, Sarah & Duck, Abney & Teal... most of CBeebies tbh.

I'm ok with them watching Adventure Time, but my wife is not, so that falls under both lists maybe

Banned:

• Caillou -- whiny child and permissive parents; teaches nothing

• Peppa Pig -- same

Approved:

• Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood -- I have yet to meet a show that covers social and emotional topics for toddlers better than the Mr. Roger's franchise and this is its latest iteration. There's a Daniel Tiger for every situation and one can learn to be a better parent simply by watching how Daddy Tiger or Mommy Tiger respond to situations. The songs still carry important emotional regulation messages that adults can use.