This study uses David Oswell’s (2002) Foucauldian perspective to examine the expert knowledge that constructs the meanings of television, childhood (as citizens in potentia) and parenthood. It focuses on how BBC's successful preschool channel 'Cbeebies' addresses parents via pedagogic discourses that trie to 'curricularize' family life. As this position however risks to overestimate the power of institutional knowledge in subjectivity constitution, this study also employs audience research' cultural and media studies traditions to investigate how the learning discourses on this channel and its website get articulated in and through parental identities (Briggs, 2006).