I’m not sure if you remember but we don’t have any TV channels, not even the basics. We have TVs and we’ll rent movies or watch whatever we have, but I cut the TV a while ago. The girls were watching it all day. Dick would get sucked in as well and I almost never watch TV. Rarely do I watch it at my parents house, which is where Dick and the girls get their fill of TV on the weekends.
I’m not AGAINST TV and actually, as a kid, I watched TONS of TV. Both my parents worked full time jobs so Lucy and I were left to our own devices. Pretty much ALL DAY, EVERY DAY we would watch TV…starting with Nickelodeon’s Pinewheel, Pinwheel spinning around… (OMG, that song used to play over and over again in my head all day long.). And, all DAY LONG, up to way to past dinner time…which is when USA’s CARTOON EXPRESS would come on and we would watch cartoons like Grape Ape. In between would be cartoons like Jem & the Holograms, the Thundercats, He-man, She-ra. I…have…the…power!!!
I’d say we would watch AT LEAST 4-5 hours of TV a day! As I got older, I replaced the silly cartoons with STEAMY SOAP OPERAS. I LOVED watching Days of Our Lives (When Billy & Jennifer and Jack Devereux were SUPER HOT and just getting started. Man I’m old.) at 1:00, then Another World at 2:00, then Santa Barbara at 3:00.
Yeah, I turned out okay (hold the snickers please) but I do remember being EXTREMELY PISSY and being EXTREMELY SLUGGISH AND LAZY after watching loads of TV. I felt like a MANIC DEPRESSIVE as a kid (Yes, I was self diagnosing as a pre-teen) and remember telling my mom so. The glass was always EMPTY and I felt like I always wanted MORE and why didn’t I have MORE. I’m glad she just blew it off to …
“Happiness is what YOU MAKE of it. Boredom is in your mind. You’re fine.”
Funny, that’s what I hear myself saying to the kids sometimes. Ugh. Anyway, if it were these days and times, I’d probably be in Ridlin or whatever it is they OVERprescribe for kids these days…saying they’re A-D-D and bi-polar. Our poor kids are being so drugged up that they aren’t given the chance to learn to cope, grow, and solve problems on their own. Some need it. Many don’t.
Anyway, I could go on and on about this but I’m too lazy to. What I really wanted to do was show you the results of not having TV.
My Louise is SUPER IMAGINATIVE in how to entertain herself because she DOESN’T have the TUBE hypnotizing her and putting her brain waves on a FLATLINE.
LOUISE: TAXI DRIVER
Louise decides to take one of her old bikes and straps a laundry basket to it.
Ducky and Froggy are needing a ride so off they go.
I love that our house is a one-level (I’m lazy to walk steps and ABHOR that EVIL stair-stepping machine.) and has an even plane.
The kids have been riding their bikes around the house since they were 2.
Later, I notice that our taxi driver picked up a few more passengers.
It seems we’ve picked up LuLu (not Monk), BooBoo the Bear (Sporting a magenta GINGHAM dress that Fanny Mae sewed and that Lucy and I wore as babies. Which reminds me that I need to get that back from them so I can preserve it for their babies.) and…the HOT WATER BOTTLE is a baby named RED, dressed in a onesie that the girls wore when they were babies. Yes, RED is a headless baby…unless she’s counting the flappy lip of the top of the bottle. Talk about imagination.
My girls love to play pretend and they definitely come up with some crazy, fun stuff…all of which would never transpire if the TV were readily available. Plus, as busy as our kids are today, a little BOREDOM is good for the soul.
-Jane, TUBE-less.
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