Starting school, first of many worries!

Well actually, it isn't the first worry, but it's something a friend and I have been talking about. We have the basic Virgin tv package which is roughly the equivalent of freeview channels, and therefore Connor has absolutely no idea about Ben 10 and the like. Some of the boys at preschool are more into things like that but he doesn't play with them, just his little girlfriend. It seems like a petty and ridiculous worry, but I'm scared he'll be left out (which worries me anyway as he's so shy). I think what really made me think about it was some of the birthday presents he received at his party - Ben 10, Star Wars, Toy Story and Cars (we do have this dvd but he doesn't watch it). Bye bye Thomas and Peppa Pig

Don't worry about it, our Kieran and Anna have never been particularly "into" anything, Kieran especially. They are a bit more now that they are older espc Anna who is into Hanna Montana but that is a girl thing. Kieran does stand out a bit where we live as the other boys are all into football and he isn't but it doesn't bother him at all.

He will be fine, honest xx

Isabelle only watches cbeebies really but still runs around the garden shouting 'roary the racing car'...
She was singing the BTB theme tune before she'd ever watched it thanks to nursery's song CD too

I hear you on the worries though...

My childminders little boy is crazy for Ben10 and she doesn't let him watch it, they just pick it up from each other at school. Same with my other friends LO who starts school in September, mad for it but never seen it

I know what you mean and there is certainly a marked difference between girls and boys now at this age - Charlotte got lots of princess things for her birthday, some Disney branded but others just Barbies or whatever, not really TV related as such. Whereas her boy friends got like you say Ben 10, transformers and the things you find on TV.
I can understand your concern but hadn't really thought about it as although we get Ben 10, I have never put it on as I actually think it looks quite violent. Charlotte knows a bit about it from her friends at nursery but has never asked to watch it and I wouldn't say she feels left out but as I say, she is a girl so shows very little interest in it and the girls just love anything fairy or princess related which Charlotte mostly finds in books.
It will no doubt change as they get older but then there are a whole new set of things to worry about - branded clothing, mobile phones......basically it is just going to be one long worry for us!

I have to add to this though that I HATE commercial TV. Charlotte has become very "I want one of those" since she started to watch anything other than CBeebies and I do dread to think what it will be like when she actually starts to get influenced by what her friends have too. (she doesn't get them btw and at the moment thankfully seems to have a very short memory beyond the end of the advert!)

DS is mad about Ben 10 - and was long before he watched it - he had to wait til it came on CITV They learn about stuff from each other - he was playing Doctor Who with his friends the other week and when we asked them about it, turned out none of them had seen it! I do get him some branded stuff - but only when it turns up cheap in Home Bargains.

With regard to adverts, we have conversations about how they try to make stuff look better than it is - so for boys we talked about how when you get the car, you won't be driving it through water and gravel and stuff but just on the carpet in your bedroom - doesn't work all the time but I'm trying to get him to start thinking about what the reality of something might be.

There will always be children who have everything or who are allowed to do everything - there's a boy at Sam's school who has 2 DSs, a child motor bike etc etc etc. We just explained that we didn't think he had enough time to play with the stuff he already had - and maybe he could have 2 DSs when he got clever enough to use his feet to play one (he hasn't actually got one, as I think it would be too small to control).

Zach gets influenced in what he's into by one of his friends and asked for some bakugan for his birthday although he'd never seen the show. He also influenced his friend into Ben 10 and the other boy has loads of the toys now but has never watched it. Like the others say whether they watch it or not doesn't really come in to it with most of these things. We did go through a stage of him saying 'I want that' for every add but it was short lived as he knew better and I can take him into any toy shop and he's very happy to have a good browse around but leave without asking for anything.

One of his closest friend's isn't into any of the same toys he is but they always find something to play. I know Zach doesn't not play with kids if they don't want to play with his favourite toys they just go and find something they both like.