Taken directly from Wikipedia:
The backpack is a magic satchel, which has been known to produce large items, including multiple ladders, two complete space suits (one each for Dora and Boots) and other items that simply could not fit inside it. Backpack seems to have a lot of extra space within her fabric to be held in such a small area. It was given to Dora as a present by her mother and father. To make the Backpack open up, Dora asks the viewers at home to say "Backpack". The Backpack then sings a little introduction and asks the viewers at home to choose what Dora needs from among the Backpack's contents. Afterwards, the remaining contents go back into Backpack, who says, "Yum yum yum yum yum, ¡delicioso!" ("Delicious!")
So I am one of those mothers that puts the tv on for her children so that I can have some quiet time…which turns out to be a lot in our lives. I am sure that you all have an opinion on that, but I am not going to discuss it in this blog…may be another day. Anyway, my kids wander in and out of watching whatever is on Nick Jr while they are up and about. Most of the time I ignore whatever it is that is on, other than to notice what they like and what I like. For example, Ryan loves Bubble Guppies, and Casey loves Dora and Diego…I do not! I loathe Dino Dan and the Fresh Beat Band. I happily ignore Dora and Diego because I am not fond of them, and I could never really put my finger on why until now. I find Dora the Explorer to be quite distressing…I want to rip the map into a million pieces and burn it every time it sings. And what has become a recent realization to me is that Dora’s backpack EATS EVERYTHING!!
Is anyone else really disturbed by this? I know that you all probably knew this before, may be you pay more attention to what are on these kids’ shows. I was actually watching it for the first time a couple of weeks ago; again I happily ignore most of the shows. I almost changed the channel because I was so distressed about the fact that her backpack had just eaten a pair of rubber boots and a rubber duck and said “yum yum yum yum yum, delicioso”. I have rubber ducks in my house, as a matter of fact I consider them an absolute necessity for any bathtub to have at least one, and this thing is eating one and saying yummy! I try very hard to teach my kids what can and what cannot go into their mouths…for example: Fruit snacks are yummy, put them in your mouth and eat them. Shoes are cock-a-ninie, don’t put that in your mouth.
What keeps this thing from eating Dora and her buddy the purple monkey which is ironically names “Boots”? And why not sick the backpack on Swiper when he is being a pain, won’t it just eat Swiper and then regurgitate him back up at a more convenient time? Hhhhmmmmm…may be the backpack only eats in-animate objects, yet still highly distressing in my book!
I don’t mean to be a complainer here, but what are we teaching our children? That backpacks will eat things that we don’t want or need. That we can eat rubber boots. What doesn’t that backpack eat? I wonder how many children become afraid of backpacks, thinking that if they get a purple one with eyes then it will eat them?! I am very concerned about this! The other thing I wonder is, all that crap comes out of her back pack to begin with…if it eats it when it is done, then when it spits it out to begin with is it throwing up? I wonder how many kids have regurgitating backpacks, because I have pulled some really odd things out of my Casey’s backpack when she comes home from school. I have learned that you have to check those things when they get home from school because if you don’t then you end up with rancid smelling backpacks hanging by the front door when they are on vacation. It took me like 3 days to figure out what that smell was! They should so not let them put food in there!
Anyway, back to Dora’s backpack…I am left having to decide about the watching of this show in my home…I’m the mom, I have to make these life altering decisions, right?! After much prayer, I decided that I am capable of combatting Dora and her hungry backpack. If the question arises then I will just say that Dora has to get a new backpack for every show because the old one always dies because the dr wasn’t able to remove the rubber boots before they made it to the intestinal tract, which is why we shouldn’t eat rubber boots. As for why Dora chooses a backpack with friendly eyes and a happy smile that talks to her after regurgitating various items and then eats the ones she doesn’t want. Well I suppose I will approach that from the aspect that you can never really tell who is a cannibal and who isn’t just by looking at them. I will make a point of telling my children that if their backpack starts munching on their rubber boots then they should abandon the backpack and I will buy them a new one and have Daddy bless it not to eat their rubber boots.
I do the same exact thing (only he watches Sprout)!! We've had an issue with Caillou. I watched a few episodes at first, found it boring and didn't pay much attention to it. Then we started noticing that he was saying things like, "it's not fair" and throwing little fits and since he literally hadn't been around any other kids for months since he had the plague, I decided to sit down and watch tv with him...um, yeah. They always resolve the issue by the end of the episode, but in the process they have taught him bad behavior! No more Caillou for this 2 year old.
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