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The Baby Einstein Controversy: A Retrospective

lulaloopsey

186,207 views

Baby Einstein was truly a staple for 2000s babies everywhere. So I decided to take a look at the history and or story behind! As well as the controversy that arose after Disney took ownership of the brand.
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SOURCES:

https://slate.com/technology/2017/12/...

https://fairplayforkids.org/wp-conten...

Julie Clark of BabyEinstein & MommyMade on...

CNN Julie Aigner-Clark Interview 1997

https://www.leadingauthorities.com/sp...

https://www.webwire.com/viewpressrel....

https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/the-...

https://time.com/archive/6932099/baby...

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health...

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/ed...

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-...

MUSIC:

Baby Einstein On The Go: Symphony No. 2 in...

Baby Einstein On The Go: Symphony No. 94 i...

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DISCLAIMER:

the lulaloopsey youtube channel is not suitable for children i make nostalgic video essays\cartoon reviews for young adults !

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TAGS: The Baby Einstein Controversy: A Retrospective,baby einstein,childhood nostalgia,nostalgia,nostalgic,2000s nostalgia,2010s nostalgia,baby einstein,baby mozart,baby bach,baby shakespeare,baby einstein video essay,history of baby einstein,baby einstein controversy

20 Comments

@yeeyeeyeeye 1 year ago

I love that the TLDR of the controversy surrounding Baby Einstein is "parents upset when they learn they still have to teach their children and a video can't do their job for them." It reminds me of parents who hand children their iPads and get upset when their child is addicted to the device and acts out when they don't have it.

@donnylurch4207 1 year ago

People got mad at Baby Einstein like they had NO IDEA Cocomelon was coming.

@ripleyandweeds1288 1 year ago

The controversy can be summed up as "You people do realize the name 'Baby Einstein' isn't meant to be taken literally, right?"

@kaizomusicofficial 1 year ago (edited)

i’m autistic, i grew up with baby Einstein and my grandma swears that it was the best thing she’s given me. I entered kindergarten a year early and she swears it got me into music and gave me perfect pitch. Of course, she didn’t just put it on for me and didn’t do anything else, she always tutored me and got me to read very early, i excelled in math and was a year younger than everyone in my class. i wasn’t some genius though, by the time my parents and i moved away from her, i became the dumbest and most mocked kid in class lol. i flopped almost everything until high school (except music, i put out eight albums by thirteen. this isnt me bragging, other than that, keeping up was hard for me.)

i love my grandma.

@insectenthusiasts11 1 year ago

17:28 this controversy is crazy because flash forward to the present day and kids are on YouTube watching genuinely damaging content. There is a huge difference between casual and harmful entertainment

@starfruitkirby6962 1 year ago

Other people have said it, but every time this sort of topic comes up, I’m absolutely shocked at how parents are like “wait so you mean I have to TALK TO MY CHILD??” Like yes? It doesn’t even need to be directly at them, have phone conversations, monologue your day to them, they don’t randomly spawn in the ability to speak one day.

@justadreemurr 1 year ago

love how the tldr of the controversy is "people expected a video program to teach their babies instead of teaching the babies themselves, and instead of engaging with their children they harassed a mom about her silly video"
it's like handing an infant a book to "read" compared to reading along with the baby, making silly voices and commenting on how the baby is reacting to said material. or just handing them a toy to play with and leaving them alone compared to playing with the baby with the toy and teaching the baby words by talking to them while playing together

@farrahaking 1 year ago

as a former early childhood teacher- i can promise you those videos had little to nothing to do with the children having stunted language progression. it always goes down to involved parenting and how much a parent interacts and communicates with their child. for those parents to think those videos are what caused their child to be “dumb” truly baffles me. to me it sounds like these parents did not want to take accountability for being actively involved enough in the development of their child’s language skills- and are instead taking what they used to distract their child when they didn’t feel like parenting to blame. just my take tho from experience with children that age and the way many choose to parent in the 21st century

@azzykoopa 1 year ago

The idea that there was a controversy about Baby Einstein literally feels so wrong when I remember my mom having a lot of those videos and I loved all of them.

Also "people in their early 20s are drawn to them" is such a crazy read when I'm 23 and autistic and feeling so nostalgic.

@whentheisdoes 1 year ago

Hey I’m actually Related to the creator of Baby Einsteins! Julie is my Dads cousin! fun little tidbit for those searching for the Little Einsteins pilot, I asked my dad to email Julie and ask her if she had any involvement with the creation of Little Einsteins. Julie sold Baby Einsteins to Disney and then they turned it into Little Einsteins. Unfortunately she had no involvement with the Little Einsteins pilot so that’s where my dead end search for the pilot ends. I’ve never met her, all I know is she’s A millionaire now and she’s doing well!

@artistkeyframe 1 year ago

As a late Gen Z with autism who grew up with the videos, I say that those parents who complained about the videos were either too impatient or just relied on the videos, nothing else, to teach them.

@ariadnefrolich7243 1 year ago

Baby Einstein is the opposite of brain rot. My siblings watched it and they turned out fine. But it should be noted our parents took an active interest in our lives beyond basic care. Our education, our hobbies, they took interest in all of it. It's amazing how actually bonding with your children positively influences their growth. I work in retail and it breaks my heart when I see kids and toddlers glued to a phone/tablet while their parent(s) shop. As kids, shopping with our parents was an adventure for my siblings and me; our parents had ways of making it fun for us.

@sadboiinasweater6104 1 year ago (edited)

Baby Einstein is still technically going on to this day. They have a YouTube channel and are running a flash-animated series and the puppet show stuff is referred to as the "Baby Einstein Classics".
Also clung onto those characters *hard*. I still have the Bard puppet that my parents got for us when we were the intended audience. This was our cocomelon.

@yuki_1002 1 year ago

The only memory I have of Baby Einstein is being jumpscared by that dragon puppet.

@lll.24601 1 year ago

WHY DID I CRY AFTER SEEING THE BABY EINSTEIN INTRO WTF

@GoddessofWisdom 1 year ago

Even discrepancies and weird ethics behind the scenes aside, I feel like those studies could easily be explained by the fact that babies who watch videos are more likely to have parents who don't do anything else enriching with them (just using the videos as a "babysitter") so they could've lost out on learning language skills because of that (and would've lost out on them whether they watched baby videos or not, because if it wasn't them those parents would've found something else to "babysit" their child). If parents actively ask their kids questions, tell them stuff, etc. they're going to learn more, whether it's accompanied by a video or not

@Finchsaviary 1 year ago

I’m autistic and had a pretty significant speech delay. Baby Einstein was amazing for me and my mother when I was a kid. I learned sign language and was piecing sentences together in sign because of baby Einstein. I think about it in retrospect with happiness.

@MinaSugarQuill 1 year ago

SAY IT WITH ME, KIDS. CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION.

@morzuhm 1 year ago

As a 30 year old man, I feel like kind of a weirdo watching your content, but at the same time I am also on the autism spectrum and have a huge attachment to my childhood media, toys, etc. A lot of the content you make brings me much of the joy and comfort that I long for, which could only be found back in my childhood. So thank you for all that you do.