I was at the beach earlier this week camping with my family and two other families. A few things I noticed during this trip:
*Wal-mart has every material thing one needs to live
*Sunblock needs to be applied every two hours
*My children were transformed into kind and obedient little people.
It’s the last point that really surprised me. Trac and I were driving back and realized how good the kids had been. Then the correlation hit me. They had no TV on the trip (minus the American Idol in the restaurant). If only I had a beach in my backyard. 😉
Kidding aside, the challenge now that we are home is to not use the TV as a default setting in the home. But that means work to provide activity for the kids. Perhaps the time spent on vacation will provide renewed energy for us as parents to provide the opportunities for our children not to want to watch TV.
AMEN! It is so true. The TV can be great, but more often than not it is a funnel of despair. Yet, the TV holds so many captive and provides easy escape from the clamor of life’s activities. It’s like mental heroin – it keeps you going and you get profoundly hooked in no time at all. I must admit I can turn into a junkie really quick and my kids are right behind me. We must be willing to encourage one another to avoid TV in favor of creative games, reading and playing with all our might. When we are done, we must refuse to give into the quick, mindless sea of media.
Thanks for reminding me of this. I won’t tell my kids it was you who helped clarify my thinking on TV overload. After all, they know where you live…
True. True.
We are becoming more aware of this issue. We are trying to avoid programming that encourages aggressive behavior and limit the use of the TV as a babysitter. Why is it that our lives become more and more busy and less and less effective?
How much would it cost to have several truckloads of beach sand dumped in your back yard?
Kevin: I will join you and Dan (still a visitor) in decrying TV’s effect on children. I share his propensity to veg out in front of the tube. As a result, our home has been and remains “cable-free”. I would suggest that it is not entirely necessary for parents to replace TV with activities. Children should be required to do that themselves. They will prove quite adept at that.
James: Sand wouldn’t be too hard to get a hold of (even the sugar-white kind); it’s the waves and salt water that get expensive.