My baby wasn’t an Einstein after all, can I get a refund?
DSCRIBER.COM – During the last five years, parents hoping to give their kids a competitive edge in the great race to become the brightest (and ostensibly the most elite) did something many child psychologists considered a bit dumb: they plopped their kids down in front of a television screen. Now comes the wake-up call as millions of parents who plunked down $19.99 a “Baby Einstein” DVD didn’t get the results they hoped for. Little Johnny is C-average, addicted to video games and wants to know when he’s going to Disneyland.
Indeed, it seems, few geniuses have emerged, as a Harvard Medical School study indicated — such videos don’t promote brain development. It seems nothing can replace person-to-baby interaction and the Baby Einstein Co., a subsidiary of Disney, is once again backpedaling.
In 2006, the word “educational” was dropped from the “Baby Einstein” videos, and now, facing a possible lawsuit from the nonprofit Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood in Boston, Baby Einstein Co. will be doling out refunds to the parents of kids who didn’t become geniuses. Actually, it won’t be that easy to get a refund. Parents will have to show they had confidence in the product, but were dissatisfied with it. And parents can only return up to four DVDs.
Dscriber is a gathering of professional journalists, authors, photographers, and filmmakers. The site, edited by peers, is a fully-integrated platform for a compelling mix of articles, posts and observations. While other sites aggregate stories, dscriber.com aggregates the storytellers and their followers.
