Boob Tube

I met this very nice couple at a party recently, it was a big deal, we were all out at an adult function sans children, maybe a bigger deal for them, they have 3, we only have one.

Let's call them Jack and Jill, I was talking to Jill and she had overheard that my wife was an actress. Very proudly I told her Roz just got cast in a recurring role on the new show Kidnapped. Jill didn't know what that was, no biggie I told her, it hadn't aired yet and she won't be on until the 5th or 6th episode. I also told Jill that Roz was just cast in an episode of Law and Order Criminal Intent. This is when Jill confessed that she'd never seen L & O, in fact she doesn't watch TV at all, they didn't own a TV.

OK, so husband, wife, 3 daughters, 8 years old, the other 2 were younger, living on the upper east side of Manhattan and no TV????!!!!

I was particularly interested in how the no TV doctrine affected the 8 year old, now that she was out in the world. Jill admitted the 8 year old occasionally watched TV when she was with friends, but not in her home. Jill reluctantly volunteered that her 8 year old was brilliant, read books that would choke a TV watching horse, she was creative and totally interesting to be around. I buy that. I'd be a little worried about her being a cultural misfit, but it's really not so terrible if she doesn't know that Brittany Spears just had another baby.

Here's the kicker, no COMPUTER either!!! I wondered if she knew women had been given the right to vote.

The no computer thing is when she lost me. I didn't ask, but I hope she's learning computer stuff at school.
I think my job as a parent is to teach Coleman the good and evil in everything. TV can be awful and a ridiculous waste of time, but it can also inform and be a learning tool. And sometimes it's just good for entertainment. Don't we need that?

Reading can be just as harmful. What if the 8 year old decided she was only going to read newspapers? And her newspaper of choice was the New York Post? Or what if she accidentally picked up a copy of George W. Bush: The Right Man. The consequences could be catastrophic.

Can you say moderation?