On this week's 'Parenting' segment on the Moncrieff show, one listener sought advice about her daughter's obsession with the Barbie TV programme.
Joanna Fortune, psychotherapist specialising in Child & Adult Psychotherapy, joined Moncrieff to answer this and other listeners' questions.
The question
"My eldest child is almost four and we’re navigating all the “firsts” of parenting, including her exposure to TV.
"In my innocence, I thought Barbie (a cartoon) would be suitable for her but jeepers was I wrong!
"She’s picked up the American upward inflection in her speech, she will only wear pink, and dresses and says she is a princess like Barbie.
"She refuses to wear leggings and runners, even in the playground.
"We’ve stopped her watching it (there was a lot of drama over that) but I really feel like everything about her has changed – she used to like dinosaurs and kicking a football with daddy in the park, getting messy in muddy puddles etc.
"I feel like I don’t want her to be this way, but maybe I have to let her go through this phase?"
Joanna's advice
"This is just so normal.
"Children learn by mirroring, mostly their caregivers, but also other influences.
"By the age of four, they're really in playschool.
"They're with other children ... their sphere of influence is getting bigger than just us and so we see the impact of that.
"They also draw it, of course, from TV.
"Exposure to a broad, diverse range of play, toys, movies books, whatever it is, is most helpful."
Appropriate TV shows
"I know the Barbie cartoon this parent is talking about and it's quite adolescent.
"It's a really good lesson that before we put anything on for our kids to watch, sit with them.
"Watcha a couple of episodes and say, 'this is okay, this is not'.
"I think it's always useful for parents to be aware of cartoons that have Irish accents as well.
"So much children's TV is very American ... and that one in particular is."
Play patterns
"It's not unusual for play patterns to change and evolve as children's development changes.
"So she's showing you this is what she's interested in, but be interested in what's interesting her.
"She'll find her way back to the muddy puddles jumping in the muddy puddles.
"This is what I mean by lead by example.
"She will be interested in what you make interesting as well."
Main image shows a little girl dressed up as a princess. Picture by: Hero Images Inc./Alamy
