It is summer. Some of us work from home and may want to call upon “the babysitter” to help us us get through the long days with all the children in the house. Here’s what we’re watching at our house basically all day every day when the need arises:

Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends is a favorite of my 10-year-old and 8-year-old. It includes plenty of all the things they find funny: bullies showing themselves to be stupid and ugly, prat falls, crazy-looking creatures, plans going comically awry, pranks, spitting, insult humor, burping, jokes, everyone saying everything in a screamy hysterical voice. …Come to think of it, I don’t recommend this one. Never mind.

Monsters Inc. has the crazy creatures and the pratfalls and the burping, but it doesn’t seem to lead to the kind of imitative behavior I’ve seen from Foster’s. (Except for my 10-year-old, who now says, “You hear that? It’s the winds of change.”) We found it a leeeetle bit scary the first time we watched it, but subsequent viewings have been less scary.

Even better is Wall-E. It’s mostly quiet, mostly non-screaming, and I don’t mind seeing/hearing it again and again. It has sweetheart characters and a nice environmental theme. I found the “our culture is going down the tubes via internet access and convenience food” theme to be a little heavy-handed, but of course heavy-handed is the way messages for children go. Children are not exactly masters of the subtle (see also:  fart jokes).

Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! has the silliness and cartooniness my kids are looking for, but the show’s goal is to teach them Important Life Lessons. I find most of the I.L.L. nauseating (”Believing Hard Enough Will Make Things Happen the Way You Want!” and “You are Perfect the Way You Are, as Long as the Way You Are is Confident and Talented!”) nauseating, but I appreciate the ones that are more along the lines of “If You’re Mopey and Bored, Why Don’t You See if You Can Find Something to Do?” and “Quit Trying to Blame Other People for the Crap YOU Pulled.” And I LOVE the catchy songs and might even listen to them by myself in the car if I had a CD.