What to do about Barney (and other annoying toys!)

[EasterJoy]

…Fortunately, my nephew does not like Barney. However, for some reason, his father (my brother) has seen fit to buy him a fart gun. I deal with this by living 14 hours away.

(That last sentence is a joke. Mostly.)

Duck calls. One uncle I know bought his niece and two nephews duck calls for Christmas. Each child received a call for a different kind of duck, too, apparently. He was the youngest in his family, and so he had children of his own later than his older sibling had. That is when he learned he had made a strategic error…

 

[InquestofaWoman]

Duck calls. One uncle I know bought his niece and two nephews duck calls for Christmas. Calls for different ducks, too, apparently. He was the youngest in his family, and so he had children of his own later than his older sibling had. That is when he learned he had made a strategic error…

Hahahahahaha!

 

[Beryllos]

One solution to the Barney problem would be to get him hooked on The Wiggles.

 

[Iron_Donkey]

Duck calls. One uncle I know bought his niece and two nephews duck calls for Christmas. Each child received a call for a different kind of duck, too, apparently. He was the youngest in his family, and so he had children of his own later than his older sibling had. That is when he learned he had made a strategic error…

So many ideas… the worst my brothers and I have done so far was buy my nephew a Jeep brand off-road stroller (yes, they exist) and add spinners and ground effect lighting. Also, fuzzy dice.

It made sense at the time.

 

[InquestofaWoman]

Have you seen Barney? I mean, that thing made me angry when I was 3 years old. There doesn’t need to be a reason why Barney drives someone crazy, Barney is the reason itself. And yea, verily, when I first saw it and asked it its name, it replied “I Am Who you wish was Not,” which in the language of the time was pronounced “Barney.” It is not merely a thing that annoys, it is the sheer act of to annoy itself.

Fortunately, my nephew does not like Barney. However, for some reason, his father (my brother) has seen fit to buy him a fart gun. I deal with this by living 14 hours away.

(That last sentence is a joke. Mostly.)

LOLOLOL!!

You gave me a good laugh there, Iron Donkey. As well, you convey the Barney issue quite well. Hehehehehe!

I remember as a child, I made up the most irritating jingle. It started like this.
" There was a farmer, had a cow, and the cow was very friendly. And the cow said moo moo moo and the the cow said moo moo moo."

I would then progress to the sheep, following up with, “And the sheep said bah bah bah, And the cow said moo moo moo, and the cow said moo moo moo.” Thus I would continue, with as many as 10 or more animals, singing all their sounds in turn right back to the cow. I called it, the “Moo moo Song.” Repeatedly, I followed Mum around as she tried to do her housework, caterwauling this song, and by the 6th or 7th animal, her smile would grow tight and her teeth clenched. I was usually dismissed with a friendly but firm order: “Please go and find something else to do!”

The moral? Kids don’t annoy your parents, lest you one day have a child just like you!!! I don’t have kids yet…but already I have Barney !!!

 

[InquestofaWoman]

So many ideas… the worst my brothers and I have done so far was buy my nephew a Jeep brand off-road stroller (yes, they exist) and add spinners and ground effect lighting. Also, fuzzy dice.

It made sense at the time.

Haha! A lot of things do at the moment. The aftermath can tell a different story altogether.

Fuzzy dice—you’re killing me!!

I did buy something foolish for myself once, but it was annoying in a different way. I was just a kid, and I wanted a pair of high heeled shoes…I mean REALLY high. I bought them with my own money, but I couldn’t walk in them well. They pinched my feet dreadfully and turned them red…

…They also threw me down a long flight of stairs at church, in front of a boy I liked.

Those shoes made sense at the time I bought them, too…

 

[InquestofaWoman]

One solution to the Barney problem would be to get him hooked on The Wiggles.

Hey Belryllos! Didn’t know the show so I checked it on youtube. I saw a spinning octopus and four grinning men.

I’m already shuddering…

 

[InquestofaWoman]

I decided I could not endure having that on in our home. Children do not need TV. They are better off without it, at such an early age. That was the last time I ever saw Teletubbies, and our children never saw the show once. We all feel better off for it.

Teletubbies! Dad, who is an old-fashioned, salt-of-the-earth kind of guy, sees something very ominous and weird in that show! He will not stay in the room if it comes on. Hehehe! My nephew never liked that one much, anyway, thank goodness.

You’re right, though. The less TV the better. He is developing other interests these days, which is good.

 

[Peggy_in_Burien]

According to family legend, I drove my parents crazy in the 1950s by singing the Winston cigarette commercial repeatedly.

My MIL gave my DD a little stuffed bear in the 1980s that had some horrible electronic music that played when the paw was touched (not a Teddy Ruxpin). The toddler DD pulled the stuffings out of it, mercifully ending the music! I told them Grandad would fix it when he came to visit. 20 years later, I found it again, but Grandad had passed away by then.

Now my eldest DD has 4 kids of her own, and the three youngest are absolutley crazy for Blue’s Clues! Luckily, this grandma has a high tolerance for such things…

I like Barney when DS watched him in the 1990s, as well as Dudley the Dragon. My son liked Dudley, because he only used one arm, just like my husband, who had a crippled arm. The show I hated was Big, Comfy Couch, because the actress was really abusing the furniture!!

 

[Beryllos]

Hey Belryllos! Didn’t know the show so I checked it on youtube. I saw a spinning octopus and four grinning men.

I’m already shuddering…

Well, they certainly do have a cast of characters.

Seriously, many Wiggles songs from their mid-to-late years have pretty good musical composition and arrangement. I especially enjoy the horn accompaniment, and I deeply appreciate their coverage of folk songs, maybe one or a few on each CD or DVD. I have to admit, though, I like the Wiggles music better than the videos.

 

[InquestofaWoman]

According to family legend, I drove my parents crazy in the 1950s by singing the Winston cigarette commercial repeatedly.

My MIL gave my DD a little stuffed bear in the 1980s that had some horrible electronic music that played when the paw was touched (not a Teddy Ruxpin). The toddler DD pulled the stuffings out of it, mercifully ending the music! I told them Grandad would fix it when he came to visit. 20 years later, I found it again, but Grandad had passed away by then.

Now my eldest DD has 4 kids of her own, and the three youngest are absolutley crazy for Blue’s Clues! Luckily, this grandma has a high tolerance for such things…

I like Barney when DS watched him in the 1990s, as well as Dudley the Dragon. My son liked Dudley, because he only used one arm, just like my husband, who had a crippled arm. The show I hated was Big, Comfy Couch, because the actress was really abusing the furniture!!

Hahahaha! You know, I have watched The Big Comfy Couch before, but I never once felt sympathy for the furniture. You just opened my eyes!

I, too, had a stuffed bear that played an annoying jingle. My adopted older sister grew so tired of hearing it, that she bear-napped the thing, tossed the batteries, and stuffed it into the laundry cupboard at her house.

I remember when she grabbed the bear and ran to her car. One lone paw peeked out of the bag, as though signalling for help.

All in good fun !!

 

[InquestofaWoman]

Well, they certainly do have a cast of characters.

Seriously, many Wiggles songs from their mid-to-late years have pretty good musical composition and arrangement. I especially enjoy the horn accompaniment, and I deeply appreciate their coverage of folk songs, maybe one or a few on each CD or DVD. I have to admit, though, I like the Wiggles music better than the videos.

Maybe it was a showing of their videos I glimpsed, then. I did not watch for long, so, in truth, I’ve not yet given the show a fair chance. I should have a closer look. Thanks for the tip! As well, your idea is a good one: it never hurts to try introducing a child to something else…Something kinder to the ears

I know my parents were jubilant when my brother finally put down the recorder for the piano!

 

[InquestofaWoman]

When I was a kid, I made my dad do the ‘This little piggy went to the market’ all the time on my toes. Every time I was barefoot and running to him he would say ‘Oh no not again’. I semi suspect he was half kidding because usually he would indulge me

Awwww, that’s very sweet, Angel. Dads can be so much fun! I used to play salon with my Dad’s hair, adorning it with frilly hair accessories. We would then have tea using my pretend Royal Doulton ware. (Well…I had a great imagination…) He was a good sport! He certainly never banged my bows with his hammer :blushing:

 

[MJJean]

So many ideas… the worst my brothers and I have done so far was buy my nephew a Jeep brand off-road stroller (yes, they exist) and add spinners and ground effect lighting. Also, fuzzy dice.

It made sense at the time.

That. Is. Awesome!

I am a big fan of Jeep stuff. I have some Jeep dog toys my power chewer extreme dogs haven’t managed to kill. I bet that stroller lasts and lasts!

Awwww, that’s very sweet, Angel. Dads can be so much fun! I used to play salon with my Dad’s hair, adorning it with frilly hair accessories. We would then have tea using my pretend Royal Doulton ware. (Well…I had a great imagination…) He was a good sport! He certainly never banged my bows with his hammer :blushing:

I’m a girl and I may have been tempted to take a hammer to your bows if you’d tried to play salon with me!

The bane of my existence was Baby Egg. It was a green cloth egg with white polka dots about the size of an adults hand. It came from a Happy Meal. My son, who was about 3 then, loved that thing ridiculously and would lose his mind if he couldn’t find it. He thought it would someday hatch into a baby dinosaur. The boy was also terrible at keeping track of things.The sheer number of times the sky fell and the world stopped spinning because Baby Egg was missing…sigh

I remember one time I had to take a flashlight and hunt that egg in the middle of the night because my son left it on the playground and didn’t realize it until bedtime + an hour or so of looking for Baby Egg in the house before we realized it was probably left at the park.

 

[Pax2u]

Although from everything I ever read, he was a VERY good person…I couldn’t stand the show Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. When my kids were small they LOVED it! There was a cat that just talked in “Meow Meow” language of some kind that was just the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. The whole show drove me nuts. But since the kids loved it…

My granddaughter loved Teletubbies…another show that was just plain strange. It was almost like watching a joke…a bad, psychedelic joke!

 

[InquestofaWoman]

That. Is. Awesome!

I am a big fan of Jeep stuff. I have some Jeep dog toys my power chewer extreme dogs haven’t managed to kill. I bet that stroller lasts and lasts!

I’m a girl and I may have been tempted to take a hammer to your bows if you’d tried to play salon with me!

The bane of my existence was Baby Egg. It was a green cloth egg with white polka dots about the size of an adults hand. It came from a Happy Meal. My son, who was about 3 then, loved that thing ridiculously and would lose his mind if he couldn’t find it. He thought it would someday hatch into a baby dinosaur. The boy was also terrible at keeping track of things.The sheer number of times the sky fell and the world stopped spinning because Baby Egg was missing…sigh

I remember one time I had to take a flashlight and hunt that egg in the middle of the night because my son left it on the playground and didn’t realize it until bedtime + an hour or so of looking for Baby Egg in the house before we realized it was probably left at the park.

LOL!! Funny thing is, Mum would not allow me to dress her up. No bows and hairbands for her! She had an uncanny way of disappearing or busying herself whenever I wandered around the house, accessories in hand, searching for a victim! I’m sure Dad didn’t like them either, but he never seemed to escape in time to avoid me!

Hahaha, that notorious Baby Egg! Wow! How “pleased” you must have been, having to peer into sand and bushes in the dead of night, trying to find it! 'Tis hard to deny young children when they become very attached to something. Naturally, you want to please them, but what sighs go up when the pleasure repeatedly comes at sanity’s expense

Every child has a ‘Barney’ of some kind–a toy, a jingle, a game, something that seems especially designed to drive parents to distraction. At least these things make for some fond and funny memories. I am job-hunting right now, and reading these posts really makes my day! Thank you

 

[InquestofaWoman]

Although from everything I ever read, he was a VERY good person…I couldn’t stand the show Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. When my kids were small they LOVED it! There was a cat that just talked in “Meow Meow” language of some kind that was just the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. The whole show drove me nuts. But since the kids loved it…

My granddaughter loved Teletubbies…another show that was just plain strange. It was almost like watching a joke…a bad, psychedelic joke!

Yes, I agree. I have never been able to sit through five minutes of Teletubbies. Luckily, my nephew was never much interested. Barney (notably, the Barney rerun marathons) was quite enough torture for one afternoon :banghead:

Teletubbies are weird, terribly cruel to the adult eye. Something about those odd creatures… Most of my friends are married with young kids, and none can abide the wretched things!! I should love to know who created that tragedy of children’s programming… Beer sales surely have risen since its emergence!!!

 

[shainski]

Years ago (before I had kids), i went to visit my sister’s kids. Her kids were about 7,5 and 4 (Joe) at the time. The 7 year old girl and 5 year old boy came to the door - almost begging me to save them.

“What happened?”, I asked.

“Joe has been watching ‘Land before Time’ every day for the last year - and we can’t take it anymore”.

Years later, when i did have kids, I decided that it might be a good idea to not watch any broadcast television (we didn’t have cable). I didn’t want them to get accustomed to anything. And we got most of the movies we see from the library (so they have to be returned!)

I’m thankful for that, anyway. They’ve never seen Barney or Teletubbies.

I haven’t totally been able to save myself from things I find annoying, but it’s been a lot more enjoyable when they become attached to a movie I find interesting. (and even then, it’s generally for less than a week).

 

[styrgwillidar]

My kid was huge Barney fan when he first appeared on the scene. Didn’t just watch it on TV, had to get the video tapes as well. As tired if it as I got, in retrospect I simply associated it with that period of her and my life. Both the good and the bad. She watched Fantasia a lot with me during that same time.

However, it was also about that time that one of the big First Person Shooter games was out-- DOOM II. Someone came up with a modification to the game which would replace one type of monster with Barney complete with him singing his theme song. You could blast away at him in retaliation for the hours of irritation you’d endured. Didn’t get the mod but a friend of mine claimed it helped him retain his sanity during the Barney years.

 

[Joe_5859]

One solution to the Barney problem would be to get him hooked on The Wiggles.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire, eh?