Max and Ruby Bother Me a Little;
or, Lets not talk about teen-age pregnancy quite yet son


Jacquelyn and I are careful to limit the amount of television that Ephraim is allowed to watch. Frankly, there are a lot of activities that are more educational and, honestly, fun that we can do together. We do crafts together and listen to a lot of music, which we have a absolute blast singing and dancing along with. Dan Zanes Father Goose/ABC off of All Around the Kitchen Live is a real barn-burning favorite of ours. More importantly to me though, we don't watch a lot of television because I never want there to be any thought that we used the television as a baby sitter. Spending time with Ephraim is way to precious. That doesn't mean that we don't watch any television though. We do watch television some, and Ephraim has a few favorite shows. Which leads me to another reason why we watch very little television, some of these shows scare and annoy me.


Enter Max and Ruby, a television show on Noggin based on characters from the popular series of books from Rosemary Wells. I'll admit that Max and Ruby the television show is much less annoying than the Max and Ruby books that we've read. I even find myself enjoying some of the shows along with Ephraim. I have some concerns and questions about the show though.


First, where are the parents? In no episode are parents seen or mentioned. Ruby, a seven year old, is apparently totally responsible for Max, a 2-3 year old. Even at bed time, she is responsible for getting Max to bed and to sleep. What gives? There is a grandmother but no parents. Are they workaholics more concerned with career than children? Is that why Grandmother Bunny is there all the time? It concerns me. Especially when Ephraim turns to me and says “Ruby is Max's Mommy.” That's a whole conversation we aren't doing quite yet.


Secondly, all the characters are bunnies, yet they have human toys. Specifically, space man and princess toys. What's up with that? You never see humans, only bunnies doing rather human things like gardening, building floats for parades, and painting. If in Max and Ruby universe the rabbits evolved instead of the humans, then why all the human toys? It annoys me.


So, those are more concerns. Minor really, and Ephraim really likes the show, laughing at most of it. So, in spite of my hyper-critical take on the show, we watch it once in a while. At least its not Hip-Hop Harry, right?