Narrative maps the world and its inhabitants, including one's own position within that grid. Without a rigid structure, and due to intertexuality, children hardly ever get a full picture of a story and are only treated to snippets of information. They also get conflicting messages when they are shown characters who are part human and part machine, for which they have no category in their mind, as they have never before experienced this, via their senses in their immediate surroundings. Kinder also criticises the use of repetition in narrative. Although repetition is good in the fact that it is used as a way of teaching basic cognitive skills to children, Kinder sees the negative impact it may have on a child.
Repetition equals constant assurance, due to infantile anxiety and vulnerability.
This extension of a Freudian theme, is examined at great length in the extensive use of sleep-bargaining rituals which are linked to a fear of death. Kinder feels that narrative ought to go beyond mere repetition which could harm a child's progress by not challenging them enough. However this begins to enter the realms of educational television which, in the confines of this essay, is deemed separate to Postmodernism. As well as cognitive development coming under scrutiny from Kinder, she also says that Post-modern television harms imagination. It is unrealistic to think that children only gain imaginative skills via television, as children very rarely spend every minute in front of a screen, being spoon-fed images.