As I was putzing around this morning on the computer (how is it that, even before I get dressed, I am on this thing?), I heard a tiny cry from the bedroom. Mama senses all a-quiver, I rush like a ninja into the bedroom, so as not to wake the other sleeping souls, and to the bed of Olivia, who is crying, fresh from a dream. Here is a brief transcript of the ensuing conversation:
Me: What happened, sweetie?
Olivia: You turned off the T.V.
[crying resumes]
So apparently my three year-old daughter is having nightmares about me turning off the T.V. This is bad.
Or is it? Maybe we are watching too much television in the first place - granted, we limit it to videos that I've deemed "okay" - no violence, well-developed heroines, and just a little "benign peril" (as my friend Gavin as aptly deemed it). We watch mostly Hayao Miyazaki's children's movies: Kiki's Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro (about sisters), and Panda Go! Panda, and we watch them in Japanese or Chinese (Olivia has been preferring Chinese these days - go figure), as the English versions say weird things (which are probably also in the other versions, only we can't quite understand them). We also watch Milo & Otis, Winged Migration, and some Little Bill episodes I recorded many years back. But just reading this list gives me cause for pause. That's quite a bit.
I've been figuring out little family projects that we can do each week to improve our family life - so maybe one of them can be a "no T.V." week. Which, honestly, would not be missed if I were up to getting out of the house more. I'm really a couch potato at heart, and I love T.V. - mostly the mindlessness that is required to keep up with popular shows. I suppose I could put a bit more energy into planning daily schedules... But I don't want to over-schedule, either. We just get bored.
So, dear reader, any ideas?
2 comments:
moderation in all things... even moderation. i know families that don't have tvs and love it. but, i too, am a tv fan and was as a child too. it sounds like you've chosen nutritional tv for your family to watch and not a high-fat, sugary (blech) tv diet. so, i'd say, not to worry. your attentiveness and awareness is enough to say you're doing okay in that department.
What fruit would "no TV week" bear? And what fruit does TV watching bear? (or is it bare? no, I think it's bear) And which fruit do you like the most??
Post a Comment