Turn off the TV - Part 2

Part I can be found here.


The Breaking Point

In all honesty, Bird did not pick up TV watching from me. I know that sounds crazy, but since I didn't spend all day sitting on the couch watching it, neither did she. In fact, she did not pay any attention to it at all until one fateful trip to visit my in-laws.

(Bear with me, I'm still a little bitter about this!)

My mother-in-law always wanted a little girl. She raised two sons, but still wished for the happy, giggly, pink version to dress up & play with. Apparently, one of her other daydreams was to while away the hours while watching Disney movies.

One of the evenings we were there she & my father-in-law told us to go out to dinner by ourselves. Considering how hard it is for us to ever have a date night, we took the opportunity & went as fast as we could!

Unfortunately, my mother-in-law DOES spend all day sitting on the couch watching television. As it turns out, Nana spent the evening convincing Bird that she really needed to sit on the couch and watch Cinderella. When I say convince, I mean that Bird would lose interest - as she usually did, try and walk away, only to have Nana convince her to sit down & watch more tv.

How I did not completely lose it when I found out what happened, I'll never know. Maybe a little bit of maturity snuck in!

When we returned home, all Bird wanted to do was plop down and watch whatever I had on. Well, that just wouldn't do! Remember, all we had was network television! You know, stuff like Judge Judy, Who's the Boss reruns, game shows and loser talk shows (you know, stuff like "I fathered 15 children with 18 different women & I really stink at math and the state should PAY me just becuase I'm alive & I look goooood").

Which got me thinking.... if I didn't want this sort of crap in my child's head, why was I filling my own with it?

I turned it off right then and there. It was eerily quiet.

to be continued....