{"id":117,"date":"2009-11-08T13:20:03","date_gmt":"2009-11-08T13:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/homeshuling\/2009\/11\/baby-einstein-refund-a-great-talmudic-debate.html"},"modified":"2009-11-08T13:20:03","modified_gmt":"2009-11-08T13:20:03","slug":"baby-einstein-refund-a-great-talmudic-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/2009\/11\/baby-einstein-refund-a-great-talmudic-debate.html","title":{"rendered":"Baby Einstein Refund – a great talmudic debate?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"baby_einstein_logo\"When I was pregnant, I fully expected to keep my kids away from tv for a good, long time. I managed to live up to this goal for about a year. That’s not to say that I didn’t watch tv while breastfeeding, especially once Ella became too active for me to read or use the computer while she was latched on. But I never actually planted her in front of the tube. However, shortly after Ella turned one, I became pregnant with her sister Zoe. Suffering (and I do mean suffering) from \u00a0nausea and exhaustion for most of those nine months, while her daily naps simultaneously dropped from 3 at their peak, to 2, and finally to 1, suddenly I needed help, and 16.99 for a Baby Einstein dvd was a lot cheaper than a babysitter.
\nDid I think the dvd’s would make her smarter? Did I expect her to learn anything, other than the fact the mommy is only human? No. I chose the dvd’s because they were colorful, much slower paced than most \u00a0tv (Miffy<\/a> and that guy on PBS<\/a> who used to teach people how to paint excluded, of course), and not too-too annoying. At least not the first 50 times or so.
\nDisney, however, made some lofty claims about the Baby Einstein series, which are well-documented here<\/a>. Here’s one testimonial that ran on their website:\u00a0My son, JJ, was born a month premature and was\u00a0hospitalized for about 2 1\/2 weeks. Some of the\u00a0medications he was on can cause some delays and\u00a0learning disabilities. He first received the Baby Einstein video at two months old. The\u00a0first thing I noticed was how quickly it captured his attention. I also noticed how it\u00a0increased the length of his attention span significantly.<\/em>\u00a0Unlike in the diet ads, nowhere did it say “results not typical.”<\/span><\/em>
\nAfter threat of a class-action lawsuit, Disney agreed to offer a full refund for up to four dvd’s. That’s $67.96 that I never expected to see again (assuming I even bought the dvd’s, when in fact, I think we received them all as gifts.) All of which leaves me with a dilemma worthy of some real shakla vetarya (talmudic back and forth.) Even though I never believed the false advertising, am I entitled to the rebate? On the one hand, I applaud Disney’s being held accountable for deceptive sales practices. On the other hand, the rebate offer<\/a> specifically stipulates “If you are not satisfied with the Baby Einstein dvd you purchased….” And I was<\/em>\u00a0satisfied. Totally satisfied.
\nSo, readers, what do you think? Send the dvd’s back, or not?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was pregnant, I fully expected to keep my kids away from tv for a good, long time. I managed to live up to this goal for about a year. That’s not to say that I didn’t watch tv while breastfeeding, especially once Ella became too active for me to read or use the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parenting"],"yoast_head":"\nBaby Einstein Refund - a great talmudic debate? - Homeshuling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/2009\/11\/baby-einstein-refund-a-great-talmudic-debate.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Baby Einstein Refund - a great talmudic debate? - Homeshuling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I was pregnant, I fully expected to keep my kids away from tv for a good, long time. 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