If you’re a mom, I’m sure you’re familiar with Booba. I get it, you might not know the name, but still, you’ve seen it before. However, if you don’t know what that thing is, let me introduce you. This, my friend, is Booba. Still nothing? Okay, let me show you what Booba is from different perspectives.
How kids see it: It’s just hilarious.
How mothers see it: A thing that does everything wrong.
How I see it: An old furry rat-man, that is gross and weird.
What Google says: It’s a strange creature (a hobgoblin of some sort) that’s really clumsy and funny.
What developers say: It’s sweet and inquisitive, like a five-year-old child. It studies the world without malice or offense, only with joy and surprise.
Photo credit: IMDb
What it really is: A weird-looking creature, that’s neither human nor animal. It has a lot of curiosity and experiments pretty much everything. The episodes of the animation series take place in different places/rooms, such as a kitchen, bathroom, office, nursery, movie theater, etc. Kids love him. Why? because it’s extremely funny and clumsy; it experiments things for the first time, and thus, falls off, slips, gets trapped and gets in trouble, and for some reason, kids love that.
What is the problem with Booba?
Since Booba tries things for the first time, he makes a lot of mistakes, or what we refer to now as misbehavior. Many mothers are concerned that their children would imitate what they see on screen, and some of these things aren’t only silly, but also hazardous.
Photo credit: IMDb
For instance, in the “Movie Theater” episode, it swallowed a coin. Imagine what will happen if a child tries that. Disastrous! In other episodes, it plays with candles, electricity, office supplies, and whatever comes to your mind. I read a post earlier by a mom complaining that her son opened the fridge, took out a tomato, threw it on the floor and stepped on it like Booba.
Reconsidering Booba
Booba isn’t all bad. The concept behind it is pretty nice. It encourages children to be curious, which is a good personality trait. It also shows them the consequences of their actions. Hence, to be rational with their curiosity. Its episodes are also very short (an average of three minutes), which is pretty cool. Your child doesn’t have to sit in front of the screen for an hour-long episode.
Photo credit: IMDb
Do we ban our children from watching Booba?
This is not up to me to answer, however, this is what I’d personally do:
- To start off, screen time should be limited anyway. According to the American Association of Pediatrics (AAP), screentime should be avoided for children under 18 months, closely monitored between 18-24 months, and limited to an hour per day for children aged 2-5 years old.
- Explain what that is to your elder child: Older children are able to communicate and understand logically, talk to them about curiosity and experimenting with new things.
- No Booba for toddlers and children between 4-5 years: I’d personally not allow Booba for young children, because no matter how hard you try to talk logic to them, their brain is not developed enough to get it.
Photo credit: IMDb
Do you allow your children to watch Booba? What do you think of it? Share with us any funny or dangerous situations by Booba that your child tried to imitate.
1 comment
My two year old boy loves Booba me and my husband has been worried because our son doesn’t talk and I figured Booba is for kids that have autism and maybe that’s why he don’t talk in the cartoon should I stop my child from watching Booba is it safe will it make him think he don’t have too talk ?