LJ Idol Week 1- Resolution
As a parent in 2019, I hear a lot of concern over children and "screen time." I get it. No one wants their kids to become mindless zombies who just want to sit in front of the television, and I do frequently tell the kids to turn off the devices to read or play or go outside. I'm not someone who limits screen time as a rule though, because I was one of those kids whose television was a huge part of their childhood.
I grew up in a condominium on Long Island, and whether it was my parents' love for ambient temperatures or their fear of us kids being kidnapped (some women did try to kidnap my brother from a department store in the early 1980s), or their fear of us getting hit by a car (that's my brother again, who was riding his bike when an uninsured driver ran into him and broke his leg), we weren't encouraged to play outside. In fact, it was pretty expected that we would stay in the house whenever we were home, which meant we didn't make a bunch of friends in the neighborhood and we did spend a lot of time with books and the television.
I was probably 9 or 10 when my mom got a new television for her bedroom and moved her old tv into my room. It was this gigantic, probably six hundred pound, contraption of shiny silver. The screen was maybe 10 inches, and the antennae was bent in all directions from my father's attempt to get a clear picture during Mets games. The tv took 2-3 minutes to "warm up" before you could see anything, and it made this glorious "PLUNK" noise when you turned it on. Of course, there was no remote control (and only a few channels). So if you wanted to look for something else to watch, you'd have to turn the dial ever so slowly from station to station. Oftentimes, if you wanted a clear resolution, you'd have to stop the dial in a place slightly between two stations, or risk having Jack and Chrissy's heads look like they were placed on sideways.
Having a tv in my room meant that I could wake up as early as I wanted to tune into Saturday morning cartoons (only Davy and Goliath or Gumby would be on before 7 am, but it was television!). In those days, children's shows were few and far between, so I certainly didn't want to miss them, whether it was Saturday morning (the only designated time for kids to watch television apparently) or trying to catch the last few minutes of Woody Woodpecker if the bus got us home early enough on weekdays. Otherwise, it was quite the lineup we were tuning in for: the Dukes of Hazzard, Three's Company, and if we were especially desperate, Hawaii 5-0. At dinner, my mother would turn on the evening news while we ate in the kitchen, and I learned a lot about the world around us. I specifically remember asking my mother why the president was shot and what "rape" meant. I was a notoriously slow and picky eater, and mom would leave me at the table until I finished- clearing the table, washing the rest of the dishes and then leaving me in that kitchen with the lights off if necessary. So world news would fade into Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. I'm still pretty good at random trivia and word games- thank you Alex Trebek and Pat Sajak.
Television, for me, was like an extension of my other great indoor love- reading. It was full of stories and allowed me to escape into other worlds and time periods. These days, I'm planning to work more on my storytelling, and as much as it's books that have helped me learn vocabulary and sentence structure, it's television that's helped to shape the way I write dialogue or narration. These days, I have lots of shows that I look forward to watching, but I also tend to keep the television on in the background while I do other things. It's like an old friend that keeps me company (albeit a much newer screen than the original tv I had).
So screen time is very much allowed in my house, even if it means I'm listening to Baby Shark or Color Crew for the millionth time. My kids need to form their own indoor memories, and then for goodness' sake go outside and run around!
I grew up in a condominium on Long Island, and whether it was my parents' love for ambient temperatures or their fear of us kids being kidnapped (some women did try to kidnap my brother from a department store in the early 1980s), or their fear of us getting hit by a car (that's my brother again, who was riding his bike when an uninsured driver ran into him and broke his leg), we weren't encouraged to play outside. In fact, it was pretty expected that we would stay in the house whenever we were home, which meant we didn't make a bunch of friends in the neighborhood and we did spend a lot of time with books and the television.
I was probably 9 or 10 when my mom got a new television for her bedroom and moved her old tv into my room. It was this gigantic, probably six hundred pound, contraption of shiny silver. The screen was maybe 10 inches, and the antennae was bent in all directions from my father's attempt to get a clear picture during Mets games. The tv took 2-3 minutes to "warm up" before you could see anything, and it made this glorious "PLUNK" noise when you turned it on. Of course, there was no remote control (and only a few channels). So if you wanted to look for something else to watch, you'd have to turn the dial ever so slowly from station to station. Oftentimes, if you wanted a clear resolution, you'd have to stop the dial in a place slightly between two stations, or risk having Jack and Chrissy's heads look like they were placed on sideways.
Having a tv in my room meant that I could wake up as early as I wanted to tune into Saturday morning cartoons (only Davy and Goliath or Gumby would be on before 7 am, but it was television!). In those days, children's shows were few and far between, so I certainly didn't want to miss them, whether it was Saturday morning (the only designated time for kids to watch television apparently) or trying to catch the last few minutes of Woody Woodpecker if the bus got us home early enough on weekdays. Otherwise, it was quite the lineup we were tuning in for: the Dukes of Hazzard, Three's Company, and if we were especially desperate, Hawaii 5-0. At dinner, my mother would turn on the evening news while we ate in the kitchen, and I learned a lot about the world around us. I specifically remember asking my mother why the president was shot and what "rape" meant. I was a notoriously slow and picky eater, and mom would leave me at the table until I finished- clearing the table, washing the rest of the dishes and then leaving me in that kitchen with the lights off if necessary. So world news would fade into Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. I'm still pretty good at random trivia and word games- thank you Alex Trebek and Pat Sajak.
Television, for me, was like an extension of my other great indoor love- reading. It was full of stories and allowed me to escape into other worlds and time periods. These days, I'm planning to work more on my storytelling, and as much as it's books that have helped me learn vocabulary and sentence structure, it's television that's helped to shape the way I write dialogue or narration. These days, I have lots of shows that I look forward to watching, but I also tend to keep the television on in the background while I do other things. It's like an old friend that keeps me company (albeit a much newer screen than the original tv I had).
So screen time is very much allowed in my house, even if it means I'm listening to Baby Shark or Color Crew for the millionth time. My kids need to form their own indoor memories, and then for goodness' sake go outside and run around!