The Baby Einstein videos that include "Baby Mozart," Baby Shakespeare," and "Baby Galileo" are simple productions that show colors, shapes, puppets and classical music, and are supposed to be educational videos. Combine the freedom you get when your kids are slumped in front of the boob tube while they're getting smart - that's baby-sitting paradise!

The videos do not only baby sit for you, they also "teach" for you. Now, who said "quality time" can't be bought in a $15.99 bundle? A 2003 figures show that one-third of American babies 6 months to 2 years old had at least one of these videos. Wikipedia reports that the Baby Einstein website alone is available in 7 languages with specific contents for 12 different countries.

Credit this to the suits of Disney who can sell fantasies that started from the hand-drawn white-gloved, round-earned black mouse, to the Pixar animated story of an old man with his balloon-powered floating house in "UP." These guys can be geniuses!

There's a catch though. The American Academy of Pediatrics say kids below two years of age should not be allowed to watch TV. A study by researchers at University of Washington, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, found that children aged 8 to 16 months who are exposed to baby videos are strongly associated with lower scores on standard language development test.

And their verdict about the baby DVDs/videos? The same study said that these are of no value and "may in fact be harmful." The experts say that instead, daily reading and storytelling are better associated with higher language scores especially for toddlers.

C'mon, now Moms! Get down on the floor and play with the kids. We have to face it, the electronic baby-sitting technology that can replace you hasn't been invented yet. Perhaps not ever.