Is this a thing?

[cab67]

I came to parenthood late - I'm 50, and my daughter is 2.

All three of us ended up with the flu last week. And my daughter insisted on watching one show - and only one show - for the two days she was down.

It was Moana. I actually liked it at first. The animation was stunning. Interesting approach to Polynesian enthography (basically making a fictional community by borrowing aspects from several real ones), and enough biology and geology to keep a scientist like yours truly interested. And who knew the Rock could sing?

Two days later, I was ready to confess to pretty much anything.

Is this a common feature of children that age - to fix onto a single movie or tv show and watch it repeatedly?

[Moostache]

1. Yes...be thankful it wasn't "Teletubbies"!!!

I still have cold sweats and hear "Time for Tubbie bye-bye...Time for Tubbie bye-bye" in the wind!!!

Good luck...I'd say it gets 'better', but it just gets different!

[Louis1895]

4. Wow!

My wife used to say the same thing: "It never gets better, just different!"

So true.

So true!

[cab67]

5. I haven't seen Teletubbies since I was in graduate school.

That certain botanical euphoriants were involved is something I will neither confirm nor deny.

[Moostache]

6. They were at their peak when my kids were the target demographic...

I could have certainly benefited from herbal self-medicating at times!

[Louis1895]

2. Welcome to Parenting 101

Better late than never!

And the answer to your question is:

YES!

[Ohiogal]

3. YES!

I had three little boys under the age of six at one time, and they would watch the same couple of videos over and over and over until I could mouth the words along myself. The videos were about trucks! It's just a phase that kids this age go through, nothing more. Completely normal.

Each of my kids had a favorite book that they asked me to read to them over and over, too. To the point I had the book memorized. They just like what's familiar sometimes, it's comforting to them in a crazy upside down world.

[handmade34]

7. yes!

[fleur-de-lisa]

8. Yes. Children find the repetition comforting.

They know how things will turn out for the characters they come to love and take comfort in that.

[Nay]

9. Totally normal for both boys and girls. They do it with books, too.

Enjoy your little treasure!!

[Permanut]

10. Oh, my goodness yes..

I'm pretty sure I watched "Homeward Bound" 20 times. He's outgrown it now.

[rsdsharp]

11. There's good and bad with this.

The bad, obviously, is that you have to watch it over and over and over and over. The good, perhaps surprisingly, is that you can.

When our daughter was five she wanted to watch Electric Company constantly. (Or as she called it HEY YOU GUYS!) This was 1979-80; Electric Company was on once a week. There were no DVRs, and while VCRs existed, they were still fairly rare, and we didn't have one. The fact that the show wasn't on, and couldn't be watched, didn't deter her.

Today, parents and grandparents acquiesce to repeated plays to keep the fit pitching to a minimum. We didn't have that option.

[MontanaMama]

12. Yes...it is thing.

I came to parenting a little later than a lot of folks...had my son when I was 41. Not that any of that matters to the subject at hand. My kiddo has always fixated on one thing be it a movie or a song or a band. When he was a toddler it was Shark Tale and Curious George and the tv show Oswald. Thank goodness I loved them right along with him. Lately, it's Dude Perfect, which I could really do without! Take heart, as they get older their scope widens and their fixations can be so much fun.

[cyclonefence]

13. "Who knew the Rock could sing????!!!!" n/t

[cab67]

14. He's the reason my daughter calls the movie 'Waka'

Or at least that’s what we think. When he sings “You’re Welcome,” she goes crazy.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

15. Yes, little kids are that way.

You might consider establishing a rule that one movie or show cannot be watched over and over, not without at least one something else in between. I wouldn't let my kids keep on repeating any one show or movie like that, and since I squelched that inclination at the very beginning, it wasn't a problem.

But you do what works for you and your daughter. There is no one right way.

And keep in mind, that while we adults don't usually watch something quite that repetitively, we like our favorite TV or movie series or book series -- Game of Thrones, anyone? because there's a comfort in already knowing the characters, the sorts of situations they'll find themselves in, and the typical resolutions. It's very common for us to favor that familiarity. Young children simply do that more intensely.