Poor, poor cynical me

I think I'm supposed to be a Generation Y-er.
And by god we're a cynical bunch.
I was always adamant that Ari would never be allowed to listen to the Wiggles. Correction - if he found the Wiggles on his own and loved them, fine. But I wouldn't be shoving Dorothy the Dinosaur down his throat in a bid to provide him with some conveniently merchandisable entertainment.
Then I read an article in the Weekend Australian magazine about the Wiggles. And it totally changed my mind. Those guys are geniuses. They deserve their millions.
They are mindful of early childhood development, aren't arseholes, love their jobs and don't treat kids like adorable little idiots.
I'm still not sold on the songs. But I understand where they're coming from now.
Kids love songs about stuff that's exciting to them - driving in cars, eating food. They love doing easy dances they can master.
Try as I might to find a hidden agenda of brainwashing a generation of children into worshipping primary colours, it just isn't there.
I still have my doubts about another kiddie product, though - Baby Einstein.
A friend kindly gave us a load of Baby Einstein DVDs for Ari, and he is mesmerised by the colourful images and music on screen. Similarly, he seems entranced by another set of DVDs called Baby Can Read, which introduce babies to basic words and sounds.
But my cynical self still rises up. So much so that I've taken to calling these DVDs "Mugatu" after the crazed fashion designer played by Will Ferrell (pictured above) in Zoolander. For the uninitiated (and if you haven't seen Zoolander, go hire it NOW!), supermodel dope Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) is forced to watch an instructive brainwashing video by Mugatu to try and subliminally trigger him into assassinating the Malaysian Prime Minister.
But I'm sure these DVDs are all properly researched, with loads of data proving that they'll turn babies into little geniuses. But I can't help feeling they're just a way of keeping kids quiet for 20 minutes while Mums go and have a shower.
And hey, there's nothing wrong with that.