What types of things in media specifically made for children did you dislike as a kid?

[AnnaLandin]

Seconding @gateofselidor and @joannekwan on being immensely bothered by the fact that a particular species/Harry potter House would determine whether a character was evil or not. Even to my elementary school mind, I could clearly see that was just racism painted in primary colours.

Not only was it offensive - it was boring as heck.

Some of my own:

• The grotesque exaggerated art style and loud, gross-out humour of shows like Cow and Chicken and (to a lesser extent) Courage the Cowardly Dog, and similar shows that came out in the late 90s/early 2000s. I was 11 when Cow and Chicken started airing on tv, and it was just grating in the worst of ways.
• As a very small child (aged 6-7-ish?), I found it very hard to handle characters doing things you weren't supposed to/allowed to do and doing them on purpose. You know, just to rebel, or just because it was the wrong thing to do. What if they got in trouble? D:
• Scenes set up just to humiliate a particular character. I could handle it if it was revenge on someone who had been terrible (bullies, for example), but when something humiliating happened to a main or secondary character? I just couldn't take it. To this day, I handle that kind of thing badly; second-hand embarrassment like whoah.

[hushicho]

Oh I absolutely hate it when a story does the "they're expected to be evil by society, and guess what -- they're right!" because that just teaches a very questionable lesson. So, because the people you hang around think someone's wrong because of a singular label on them, that means they're likely wrong? That's asinine!

I also agree that "romance", and I use drama finger quotes for this, is overdone in most stories for younger audiences. Even as a child I was endlessly annoyed that there was almost always some shoehorned-in romance that was included for no reason other than because it was expected. If it's not going to contribute something to the story and the story doesn't revolve around it, I don't really see a reason to have it. In a story like Cinderella, sure, it's a major aspect of the story. In Captain Fauxhawk and the Edgelords, probably not.

This also brings up general pet peeves, but I have always -- always -- hated the trend in stories for young audiences, handing out awards practically guaranteed if you put some meaningless death in your book. Kill off a character in a children's book and have them learn the "hard lesson" of death, and you'll almost always win some critical acclaim and usually an award. I despise that trend that persists to this day. Admittedly, I'm very picky now about killing off characters, but I find it almost never done well in stories for children, and I hated it as a child. It was always shoehorned, awkward, and usually meaningless...and as a cat lover, I was so burned by stories that needlessly killed off usually titular cats that one day -- in second grade! -- I asked the librarian for help on finding a book about cats. It had some dramatic title that sounded like one of those, and I just frankly asked her, "the cat dies, doesn't it" and she was surprised, and chuckled, and said "well, yes...let's find you a better book."

If by age 7 I could spot abuse of that, I think it's well past time we move on!

[indagold]

I hated the whole obsession with friends thing as a kid. I know having friends is healthy and helps you to communicate but every educational tv show for kids shoved it down your throat and acted like your weren't normal if you didn't have any friends or if you had one friend it wasn't good enough. On top of that the same people talked about how bullies only bully because they have no friends and their parents don't love them when in reality it's not like that. Bullies tend to be in groups with tons of friends picking on kids without any friends.

I also hated most 90s cartoons due to that klasky csupo style. I'm sorry but rugrats, rockos modern life and cow and chicken are disgusting looking. Also I could not stand the gross out humor that came with 90s cartoons like that. Even as a child I thought ren and stimpy was for an adult audience only to find out years later it was for kids. The only cartoons that were nice to look at were mostly powerpuff girls and dexters lab.

Most live action shows. I would hate looking for cartoons to watch to only end up on some shitty live action.

[Devika]

Hmm let's see... What I can think of now:

1. Pretty much what @shazzbaa said: No storyline, everything was episodic with zero continuity. Probably the reason I loved anime so much when I discovered it - look, animation with a story! (I know, there are western shows with a story too - but they just didn't air where I lived! The first story-animation was Cardcaptor Sakura, and well, my family was hooked.)
2. The smurfette syndrome and the girls always being love interests. I couldn't quite put my finger on it as a little kid, it was mostly a very persistent subconscious irritation about pretty much never being able to identify with the characters. Not that this is something exclusive to childern's shows, but it was EVERYWHERE in them, and so blatant. As if girls could only ever use the color pink and had to have a thing for the main dude.
3. Oh this is an animation peeve: When the characters were trapped behind bars but they could just have squeezed out between them. Why was that so common? xD
4. @AnnaLandin and @indagold gold brought up something I couldn't agree with more: The loud, gross, and/or ugly shows. Oggy and those cockroaches was (is) my absolute nightmare, and I never liked Rugrats, Cow and Chicken, Real Monsters etc either.
   (And I can't handle second-hand embarrassment either, it's SO BAD)

EDIT: I thought of another one! The main guy has to be the one to save the day-trope. It made so many episodes uninteresting, because you just knew from the beginning that this secondary character would be saved by the main one in the end anyway. Similarly, plot-armor in the sense that you know nothing's going to happen to the main character because, well, he's the main character and he's always going to come out on top. Can't think of any specific examples, but it did bother me a lot.

[Triple_Horatio]

I'm the polar opposite. It was the shock humor (ie Invader Zim) and effort that went into drawing those characters (ie Ren and Stimpy, Rugrats) that made it such a relief from things like Powerpuff girls. Not to say I didn't enjoy it, but this is just my opinion.

[Triple_Horatio]

Singing, and the "parents are never home/adults are useless" trope.

[spadesart]

THE! SMURFETTE! PRINCIPAL! nasty little trope!!!! i have to admit i'm kinda guilty of it in my comic (i love drawing boys..........................................................) but as a kid it was so hard to find characters to look up to. half these female characters were also just love interests or the same copy/paste character that's only purpose is to go "oh, you boys! you're all so ridiculous!"

seconding "ugly" cartoons. I couldn't get into edd ed and eddy at all because of that.

[SpavVy]

Singing! Oh God the fucking cringy singing! I already had to deal with the torture of being forced to sing the same terrible song every day in first grade I don't want to hear cringy songs in my cartoons too!

[NickRowler]

-I remember hating Sesame Street as a young child. Yet loving stuff like Barney. I think some of it had to do with Sesame Street being a bit random and all over the place (with random clips stuck here and there) while Barney seemed more linear

-I was also that child who would yell, "EEEEWWWWW!" every time there was a kissing scene.

-When I got older (like 10-ish), I started to hate character's who were OP when it came to intelligence, skills, or just luck. While also lacking in flaws. I guess I generally preferred stupid ass protagonists who are super flawed.

[joannekwan]

I disliked how people in glasses were always the "smart" one.

Even as a kid I was like, "geez, I can't live up to that!"

[almondjoy445]

As far back as I can remember it was usually shows aimed towards girls that I really disliked. I ended up watching more action oriented shows that were meant for boys or were generally neutral towards a kid's gender. I am a woman myself and being a girl, I found myself not relating to most of what those shows said girls were supposed to relate to. And it was usually really girly stereotypical stuff.

Then there were things like the Smurfs that I could not stand! I found those little blue buggers more annoying than the actual villain and I think it was because they were all just one note tropes.

[Kura]

The singing thing really bugged me as a kid as well.

In some movies I actually did not mind it, as the story was written as a musical so the songs FIT and were just natural progression and flow, you didn't even thing twice about them. After those movies made bank though I guess it became standard to 'if the movie is for kids. Add at least 5 songs into it.' and it just bothered me... because those movies were not written as musicals even though then featured singing. I HATED it when the story felt like it stopped for a character to have a god damn song break. It dragged the movie on and annoyed me, heck it could sometimes be embarrassing when the characters on the screen your watching breaks out into song. Which I know is unreasonable and not really something YOU should be embarrassed about since you're not doing it, but for some reason it was.

Also mentioned 'character deaths to teach kids a hard life lesson' (not including villains, because villain deaths seldom include a life lesson) this... bothered me... not as a theme, but as a way it was treated. If the character was unimportant, had little impact on the story or or just there. It was fine, but if the story treated it as a big thing, had it be important and bring more than just meaning that 'easy sad part' like say 'The Iron Giant' then that story was considered too mature for kids, that kids won't get it, or too dark. All these things added up to 'kids are stupid and will not understand' and of all the things being thrown at me in media as a kid, being treated like I was stupid was the worst and most insulting of them.

[almondjoy445]

This one just came to mind.

Anyone remember DW from Arthur? I love the show, absolutely hate that brat! I hate the fact the she is written to be a brat and the way the other characters are written to respond to her crap. Yes child characters, especially young ones can be bratty, but there were things DW pulled that no parent would realistically excuse such as playing a certain song 24/7 and at a loud volume and not doing anything about it, then punishing Arthur for threatening to break it because at that point he was so annoyed by the song and unable to concentrate on his homework. Instead of seeing it as the parents attempting to parent, I saw it as them playing favorites. Or how about when that brat threw a week long tantrum and was rewarded for it at the end of the episode? Guuuhhh!

[maelstrom51210]

I mostly remember hating shows where the main character was a whiny little **** I'm looking at YOU, Cailou.

[Zanreo]

The "damsel in distress" trope/plot, I remember being 4 and complaining "why is it always the GIRL getting saved by the BOY? Do they want to show the girls as helpless and not being able to save themselves, needing a guy to help her?" Or when there was just one female character whose main personality was "the girl" and was generally the main guy's love interest.

As far back as I can remember it was usually shows aimed towards girls that I really disliked. I ended up watching more action oriented shows that were meant for boys or were generally neutral towards a kid's gender. I am a woman myself and being a girl, I found myself not relating to most of what those shows said girls were supposed to relate to. And it was usually really girly stereotypical stuff.

Yep... most "girl" shows I couldn't stand, they just felt too bland and about stuff that I had no interest in. Though I didn't watch that many action-y shows either, I mostly watched more comedic shows.

[vanessa0802]

the fact that in EVERY movie there has to be a HEROINE, why, why can't heroes just be forever alone, frickin heroines

[Random]

Spongebob. I had problems with how inconsistent it was/is with characters' backstories and abilities.

That's the reason why I don't like watching most sitcoms even as an adult. I've seen actual family members of the main cast get retconned out of existence and it drives me crazy!

[Greg_Dickson]

AH! I totally agree with you on singing! I HATED singing when I was a kid (I don't mind it AS much now though). Mostly the reason why I liked Warner Bros cartoons far more than Disney. Far less songs (and when there were songs, like some in Animaniacs or Looney Tunes, they could be quite funny or catchy). I also gravitated towards animals far more than people. Stuff like Garfield, DuckTales, Looney Tunes, Animaniacs, were my jam.

Also, slice-of-life cartoons were terrible to me. You know, stuff like Doug, Hey Arnold, etc, where the characters were just regular people with regular things happening to them, where humour wasn't the central focus (if there was humour in these shows, I never noticed them and I was totally bored). I basically needed my shows to be funny, above everything else. I wasn't even a big fan of action back then.

[seamar01]

I wasn't crazy about shows that were largely focused on slapstick and being silly all the time. I didn't hate them or anything like that but I feel like there was a very thin line between funny and stupid with those kind of shows. It got boring when it was just the one tone throughout.

I definitely preferred cartoons that had an actual storyline and progress. (and I guess were more action and character orientated) Even if it was kinda loose like Xiaolin Showdown, in that each episode was kind of it's own story or problem they had to deal with but there was still continuity in the sense that the artifacts/weapons they acquired in previous episodes appeared in later episodes....and usually it was all leading up to some multi-part finale where they'd succeed and get promoted to higher warrior (monk?) ranks (which would stick in the next season)

(Also Teen Titans is another show I remember really getting into)

I guess even back then a sense of continuity was pretty important to me.

[niinasalmelin]

OH man I had such a big issue on those live action shows with people on animal costumes and cheap theatre clothing and makeup. I was never able to get into the show because it looked clumsy for me and I couldn't get into the mood. ..so sorry power rangers and all the others .___.

I disliked it when all the adults in some kids shows/movies are useless idiots. Home alone movies made me feel bad for the thieves. I didn't like most disney princess movies or singing either.