Dear CBC: WTF, Seriously?

 I think it's great that Canada has its own public broadcaster. I think it's great that Canada's own public broadcaster runs a decent morning line-up of children's programs (the era of Mr. Dress-Up and The Friendly Giant is over, for sure, but Wilbur is an okay show, and the girl-child loves Animal Mechanicals). What I don't think is so great? That whoever is overseeing the CBC morning television schedule thinks that it's okay to run a graphic medical program immediately on the heels of the effing Doodlebops.

The Doodlebops is, I grant you, its own special brand of scary, but still: running "Little Miracles" - a docu-drama about the patients of Sick Kids hospital in Toronto, complete with graphic camera footage of OR procedures - right after the closing song-and-dance number of a team of children's entertainers (no matter how freakish those entertainers) is akin to airing Goodfellas right after Yo Gabba Gabba. Segueing from dancing clowns to full close-ups on liver transplants and mothers weeping over their hemophiliac children? TWISTED.

Obviously, I should be keeping a sharp eye on the clock when my daughter is watching television. Obviously, I should turning the TV off as soon as the Doodlebops credits start running (more obviously: I should have banned Doodlebops from our household before my daughter decided that she liked to do her morning exercise routine to the sonic ear-bleed that they pass off as music.) But I'm not always on top of the clock and so I find myself having to explain to Emilia (who, at three, loves doctors and doctors' offices and doctor visits and plans on becoming a hockey player slash ballerina slash doctor when she grows up) why she cannot watch 'the doctor show.'

Me: Sweetie, it's time to turn the TV off.

Her: But Mommy! The DOCTOR SHOW!

Me: You can't watch the Doctor Show, sweetie.

Her: Mommy WHY?

Me: It's a grown-up show, sweetie.

Her: It's got kids. See? Look. (Points at child onscreen being rolled down hospital corridor on gurney.)

Me: I know, but...

Her: Why's that girl got things sticking in her arm?

Her: Why's that girl sleeping? Why's her mommy crying?

Her: Why are they cutting that girl, Mommy?

Me: *tosses TV out window*

Of course, it's easy to say, again, that I should just keep an eye on the clock and turn the TV off at the appropriate moment, but really? Couldn't CBC segue into adult programming with, I don't know, an hour of Antiques Roadshow or infomercials or something? Because until they do, we're going to be sticking with Treehouse TV. Or maybe I'll just give up and buy her the House DVD box set. Either/or.

This is an original post to Canada Moms Blog. Catherine Connors blogs at Her Bad Mother, where she tries to convince anyone who will listen that bad is, indeed, the new good.