A cartoon brainwashed my child

As with most kids in the US mine watch a bit too much television. The station Noggin, which runs preschool programming 12 hours per day has been playing a song called I don’t like candy corn. From the first time I heard it seemed a strange thing to write a song about.

For the last couple of weeks my 3 year old has commented, every time we see candy corn or pictures of candy corn, that he doesn’t like it. As far as he knows he’s never tasted it. I say that since it’s definitely possible that he has had it previous years.

So I was buying a costume for my 6 year old and I noticed the bags of candy corn. I know, it’s probably wrong to conduct experiments on your children, right? Well I bought a bag. I offered him some a few minutes ago. He identified it. I asked if he liked it, he said no. So far it has gone as expected. He didn’t refuse it. He hasn’t exactly eaten it either. He has sort of been licking it. Apparently weighing the impression placed on him by television with the fact that it is pure sugar and every child on the planet loves pure sugar. I predict that the love of sugar will win in the end.

Update: as I was about to post this he came over and handed what was left of the candy and announced that he didn’t like it. TV - 1 Candy - 0. Go figure.