Caillou

"Caillou" is one of only two PBS for Kids programs who's appeal is totally lost on me...and my children don't like it either. Part of it is the vocal characterization of Caillou-who's whiney little voice is like nails on a chalkboard. Couple this with insipid dialogue and sickly-sweet plotlines and you've got a show that, despite it's intent, few kids will want to sit through, let alone learn from.

I hate to sound so harsh, but it must be said that Caillou has had one of the worst influences on children I have ever seen. Caillou is a 4 year old bald child who is very spoiled by his parents. They spoil him so much, that when they tell him to wait, he breaks out into a tantrum and begins to cry and scream "I want this now!" Honestly, this is something you would expect from a 2 year old child. The parents don't ever get mad at him nor do they teach any good manners. Instead they give him what he wants almost like a reward and he yells "Yay!", then plays like a little baby.He also has a baby sister Rosie, who is pretty bratty too, but she is little so I can understand. The 2 dimensional cartoon's animation is very, very bad. Pictures are drawn sloppily and appears very fake.

Let me close with this as proof that this show is a bad influence. I have a 4 year old brother. Like most 2 year old, he used to break out into tantrums. Then he began to watch Caillou. The only thing that he has matured in his speech. He still has temper tantrums and is a crybaby for a child his age. I recommend this to a to-be parent that wants to know how NOT to raise a child. As far as children go, don't let them watch this. You'll have a brat on your hands in the near future. Put on The Wiggles.

There are two problems with this show: the scripts and the acting. Every character is an extremely idealized human being performed in one dimension. And there's no humor! A strained lightheartedness is not humor.

Though some might feel the "positiveness" is good for children, in fact it underestimates their intelligence. In addition, uninteresting performances don't foster artistic discernment in children - it's never too soon to just say no to things which are not artistically worthwhile, even if the intentions are good.

Bring on Sesame Street. Caillou, Dragon Tales and Barney are terrible.

My daughter is not allowed to watch this show anymore. Caillou is the biggest brat. He is constantly whining and disobeying. Granted, his parents do correct him eventually, but they are like flower children from hell themselves. My daughter, after watching a couple episodes, started acting like Caillou - whining, calling people "stupid".... So we don't watch this show anymore. I can't believe this show was up to PBS standards. I think they need to reevaluate their program guidelines.

I agree with the other comment about how bad this show is. Caillou is a 4-year-old kid and he does and says lots of bad things. It often takes several minutes of watching the show before he is castigated for it, and by that time, the children watching have forgotten that he did anything bad. Plus, the grandma voiceovers reinforce the badness. An example is that Caillou is supposed to go somewhere with his parents, while the grandma stays at the house and watches the baby. Caillou lays down on the floor and starts throwing a temper tantrum. The grandma voiceover says, "Caillou didn't want to go with his mommy and daddy." Then the parent moseys on in, says, "Caillou, time to go!" He cries and whines a bit, and then the parent says something like, "We're going to stop for ice cream on the way home," and Caillou jumps up, all happy, and goes. I feel this is poor programming to show to young children.

My son likes Caillou, but I won't let him watch it anymore. (He's 3, we stopped watching it when he was 2).

I wrote a nastygram to the Caillou email that's given on the PBS website, and got back a response as follows:

"The premise behind CAILLOU and his adventures is that they reflect the real life experiences and emotions of a 4-year-old child. However, we do take your comments seriously and we will share your concerns with the production team and their child development consultants."

I am sure that Caillou's "emotions" are pretty close to those of a 4-year-old! I'm just not sure that the Caillou adults handle him in an appropriate manner. I don't want my kids to expect the kind of treatment Caillou gets, when they act like he does.

Trivial thing: one of Caillou's stuffed animals is a T. Rex named (predictably) Rexy. Rexy claims that his favorite food is lettuce. If my son grows up thinking that T. Rex ate lettuce, I'm not doing my job as a parent!!