Children form unlikely HGTV fan base
Posted on Wednesday, October 1, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Family/238959/
ARVADA, Colo. — I knew something was amiss when the knickknacks — the small bowls, colorful vases, even an unused incense burner — mysteriously appeared in my living room.
It could only mean one thing: My 10-year-old daughter was watching too much HGTV again.
Hope likes to watch those home-design shows as much as anything that airs on Disney or Animal Planet. During the early evening downtime, Hope and her sister, Grace, are tuned into Designed to Sell or House Hunters.
A friend’s three daughters are similarly fixated, ignoring popular television for HGTV’s Landscapers’ Challenge and If Walls Could Talk, a favorite of Hope’s that blends history and intrigue into a story line that may sound like a yawner on paper — we’re talking about a house here — but captivates the children.
“My kids have never seen American Idol. There’s nothing wrong with that show, but my kids are so off the grid, it’s hilarious,” says my friend, Sloane Given. “It’s just not really their thing.”
They’re not alone in the elementary school set. HGTV and other do-ityourself outlets don’t track their child viewership, but hosts like Vern Yip of Deserving Design on HGTV say they’re often stopped by kids. He calls his elementary-school-aged groupies a “funny little fan base.”
Paige Davis, the host of Trading Spaces, says parents e-mail her about their children’s fixation with the show. (It spawned a Dis- covery Kids cable channel spinoff, Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls, in 2003, and repeats still air. )
Given’s 7-year-old, Lyle, also has taken that next step: Like Hope, she inserts her 2 cents into her parents’ design projects for their suburban home. Recently, Lyle’s attention was directed to the backyard.
“When we did our landscaping project this year, Lyle was so into it,” says Given. “She wanted to see the plans, she wanted to walk around with the architect and she wanted to help pick out plants.”
When Given forgot to include lupines in the yard that Lyle requested, she ran out and bought two plants for the little girl’s next birthday.
“What child gets lupine plants for her birthday ?” muses Given.
Lyle’s opinions run from plant species to paint chips, from furniture layout to the value of granite countertops. Her mother says it’s all thanks to the design shows on HGTV and The Learning Channel.
Lori Coens, of Overland Park, Kan., has an 8-year-old son, Dylan, and an 11-year-old daughter, Hayden, who watch the design shows.
“It’s better than SpongeBob,” says Coens, referring to the popular children’s cartoon on Nickelodeon.
The only problem is sometimes Dylan wants to duplicate what he sees on television, “and I’m not going to put a two-story slide in his bedroom,” says Coens, an interior decorator.
Given’s daughter and my own have unleashed their design tastes in their respective bedrooms, arranging and rearranging their possessions — some so very tiny, as one finds in children’s bedrooms — to suit their changing tastes.
Davis says that’s the allure for kids.
“There’s no accounting for taste, but what I think Trading Spaces can do is empower children to believe they can make a space their own, whatever that is,” says Davis. “It tells them your environment and surroundings are important — you can treat your things better and you can treat yourself better.”
Given approves of her children’s home-improvement-television fix, and even has nurtured it along the way.
“I’d rather have Lyle yammering on about paint colors than repeating some naughty music she’s learned somewhere,” says Given.
In my life, I’m careful to quietly return an unwanted object to the storage room and to herald any particularly clever decorating idea that my daughter Hope devises.
The interesting part ? She’s got more hits than misses. The carefully arranged rocks in a wooden bowl atop the stacked art books ? Love it.
I can’t help wondering what that says about her mother’s design style.