by Eliza Ferree

When I was younger I never would've thought I'd EVER be watching Barney day in and day out. But the fact is I do, I'm the mother of three children that absolutely adore that purple dinosaur, and the youngest one still does. Granted now the oldest one says he doesn't, I've caught him a few times watching the videos with his sisters. When I found out that I was pregnant with my first child I was babysitting a little boy, he always watched Barney. I learned by watching that little boy and the videos that the shows were actually educational. Not to mention they would calm him down when he was starting to get restless. The tunes were even catchy and easy to remember, no, I probably couldn't sing very many songs from them now though but I could've back then. My children can sing every song though without missing a word, my youngest one year old sings with him as he sings those magical songs that make her smile. This just goes to show you that children do learn from watching that big purple dinosaur that we call Barney.

Yesterday, my 4-year-old daughter came into the room singing something that for the life of me I couldn't understand. I thought at first she was just singing the words wrong but as I listened closely I didn't recognize ANY of the words. "Honey, what are you singing?" She looks at me with that mom you should know type of look, "It's I love you, Barney sings it." I sit for a second and contemplate what to say and quickly correct her, "No that's not." She gets that stubborn look when a child REALLY knows what they are talking about, "Yes it is mom, it's in Spanish." Oh, I think to myself, maybe she's right, it did sound different to me. How did I not pick up on that? I smile to myself as she walks off with her head held high, she had learned from Barney and he'd taught her to sing a song in Spanish. I knew he taught about feelings, friendships, colors, numbers, alphabets, caring and family but I had no clue he would teach her another language.

About an hour after this brief conversation with my all knowing daughter I decided to take a peek through some of the videos we had, I didn't remember seeing this one and I would've remembered. Wouldn't I? Believe it or not, after watching the sixth Barney video we owned I saw it, it was at the very end of one of the tapes. There is a mom tucking her daughter in for bed and together they sing the goodnight song and I love you, yep in Spanish.
I do allow Barney in my home and this is the reason why.