I don't know how "real life" it is, but Sarah and Duck [1] is about the best young kids show we've come across. It used to be on Netflix, but they took it off. We've bought all 9? seasons on Amazon by now though. It's a great show of just of just completely mundane things with a bit of imagination tossed in.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_%26_Duck

Agreed, and as a parent I can watch it with my kids over and over and I still enjoy it. Not quite as good, but close: Puffin Rock.

Pingu is also very good. If you haven't seen it, it's a Claymation penguin and his family. He's not a goody goody--on the one hand is just funny, but on the other hand it gets to explore his kid-life and kid-choices. TH other fun thing is, they all speak a language made up by the Italian opera singer that voices them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pingu

https://www.amazon.com/Pingu/dp/B01J4L837M

I really, really prefer the original Mr. Rogers to Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. The latter feels like it abandoned the pacing that made Mr Rogers so calming and effective.

It is for a bit older kids, but comics from Raina Telgemeier are real life like. Some are autobiographical.

Stick with PBS Kids and Sesame Street and Mister Rogers reruns.

If I remember correctly, babies learn to distinguish vowels from consonants from near birth when adults speak to them in that annoying high pitched "coochy coochy coo" dialect. After 6-12 months of life this starts to hold them back as they need to transition to hearing normal sounds and seeing the people mouthing them. The puppets with hinge-flap mouths, exaggerated and insanely high pitched accents in Sesame Street are ridiculous. I would strongly discourage letting your little ones watch this show.

Also Sesame Street is very New York. The rest of the world doesn't live like this. I recommend local kids TV shows with real humons performing. Some short cartoons are fun, many of them are terrible, but the sum total of TV is dose dependent. Turning it off straight after their favorite show might result in a little argument but you'll be pleasantly surprised when 5 minutes later you catch them doing something (anything) else. Usually something creative, social, and developing fine motor skills, if not simply running around outside. And subsequently you'll find them turning it off themselves.

Many countries had local versions of Sesame Street. I watched the spanish one when I was a kid and felt totally identified with the people and scenarios there. Neither all the characters had high pitched voices (just rewatched a bit to confirm my memory :)

I remember some Christmas special that (contrary to my country's version) had all these different characters, black and Asian kids, Big Bird and the story took place in this extremely urban setting of NY. This was in the late 80s or early 90s and I still remember how big of a difference this was for me.

I haven't been a kid in...too long, but I have a decent recollection of Sesame Street, and I don't recall an excess of high pitched voices.

Elmo and several of the girl muppets are pretty shrill, but Oscar, Grover, Big Bird, and all the humans are normal. Kermit, Bert and Ernie have that rounded "muppet voice" which is kinda in between.

Screen time isn't great but Sesame Street is hands-down among the best childrens' television in existence.

Man, I kinda wanna watch Sesame Street now...

At the age when kids watch Sesame Street, they understand spoken language well and there it is ridiculous to worry about their ability to learn language.

Also, even kids that are hold back due to in high pitched accents are hold back little bit for like two months maximum, so it completely absurd to worry about any of that.

> The rest of the world doesn't live like this.

How so?