You’ve got some dumb on your ear…

 

My mom sent me an email today about the dangers of children watching Sponge Bob. (She sent a link…all she wrote was: “Do not, I repeat: do NOT let my grandson watch this. It may already be too late for his parents…”) Yes, I admit, Jeff and I are Sponge Bob fans. :-/

The link she included was an article that talked about the dangers of young children watching this show. A recent study was conducted on 60 children. Some of them were asked to watch 9 minutes of “fast paced” Sponge Bob, some of them were asked to watch 9 minutes of a “slower paced” Caillou show and some of them were simply asked to color for 9 minutes.

After the 9 minutes was over, they were all given a mental function test. Apparently, those who watched Sponge Bob did “measurably worse than the others.” And this is just after 9 minutes. Typically a Sponge Bob episode is 22 minutes long. Supposing young children watch the full 22 minutes "could be more detrimental," researchers are speculating.

Anyways though, back to my story. Apparently my mom shared all this info with my siblings. Now, my 6 year old sister, Poppet is VERY concerned about Bodey, Jeff and my mental state.

I really freaked her out, when upon arriving at their house (and being flooded by “DID YOU KNOW SPONGE BOB MAKES YOU DUMB?!!?” And her being very concerned and asking me to not watch it anymore, I told her very melodramatically that Bodey and I watch Sponge Bob, “Every day and every night.” Her eyes almost popped out of her head.

My mom later informed me that they spent a while this afternoon praying over Poppet, who was freaking out, because she’s watched one (HORRORS!!) episode at my house before. Of course, once I found this out…yeehaw! Bring on the fun! ;-)

At dinner tonight I made her start crying, when I discovered some “Dumb” on the corner of her ear. Hehehehe. I know, I’m such a mean sister. I’ve been scratching at her, picking at her and wiping at her head and face all evening trying to help her “get the dumb off.”

She went off to her room at one point during dinner to cry. (BWAHAHAHAHA!!) <---can you tell I’m enjoying this too much??

When she came back to the dinner table, my mom was nagging at her trying to get her to eat her meal. She couldn’t, complaining that dinner was hurting her sore throat.

Of course, this leads me to say: “OH NO!!!! The dumb got into your throat?!”  And she starts crying again.

My mom got mad at me and told me to be nice. So I’m being forced to shut up. But that doesn’t mean I have to stop making giant googly eyes at her and trying to brush some of the “dumb” off of her shoulders.

Poor Poppet. She’s caught the dumb. All because of Sponge Bob.

Parents beware: Don’t let your children watch Sponge Bob…or else they will end up with the Dumb disease.

Source:

SpongeBob Square Pants Causes Attention Problems: Study