I am such my father’s daughter. I’ve always known this of course but its getting worse! I don’t like t.v. much anymore. I would rather read or do something productive than sit in front of the television. Sure there are certain programs I like and I do love watching movies but overall I would be fine not having a television at all. Its perfect having a laptop to watch dvds only!
Growing up my dad was a t.v. nazi. I think I spent half my childhood cursing at the unfairness of being born into a house where tv was considered the devil. He would freak out if the television was on when he got home so we’d switch it off real quickly when we heard the car door slam. He got wise to us though and devised some on/off switch that required use of a contraption that squeaked really loudly that he could hide in his office. My brother of course learned how to mimic the sound. He’d sit in front of the tv and make a high pitched screech until it would turn on. Oh we were allowed to watch television sometimes but it was usually public television or some other thrilling program for a ten year old. It was always, “Read a book. Go outside and play.” Oh, the injustice of it all!
But just to show my dad’s humane side I have to say that we did have Friday morning cartoons that were made all the more special because it was the only day they were allowed. He’d wake me up early and carry me downstairs and sit me in front of the heat vent as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes so I could see. By this time my brothers were already in high school so they had left for school. I was all by myself in the lazy boy as I watched Looney Tunes for an hour and got served breakfast. This was also ice cream Friday at school so how much better can life get? Cartoons, ice cream, and one more day until the weekend.
I loved going over to my friends houses that had cable and whose parents didn’t regulate their television time. I’d watch “Jerry Springer” and “Saved by the Bell” and relish in the freedom of not keeping one ear listening for the car to pull up in front of the house. As I got older we decided we needed cable so that we could watch college basketball. That’s when my mom and I discovered Lifetime, television for women. Lifetime movies are notoriously sappy and stupid, with terrible acting and predictable plots. Oh but how wonderful they are in small doses! The titles are priceless, most of them being based on Danielle Steele novels. “Have you seen my son Steven”, and “A Friend’s Betrayal”. Generally the title gives away the whole movie and every time my dad saw us watching he would roll his eyes and walk out of the room. Sometimes they are so bad, my mom and I can’t even watch them, but there are other days when they seem deserving of academy awards. It’s a direct correlation to how tired/bored you are I think.
That being said, I can survive without Lifetime. And as much as I miss “Sex and the City” and “Will and Grace”, that’s why they come out on dvds. And there will be times in the future that I will sit and have a marathon of dvds. If I was in the states, I would probably be watching “the apprentice” or whatever else is in fashion these days. I don’t even know! So its not to say that I am above television watching, its just that I like doing without. Because, as I am “maturing” I am realizing that aside from days when I just want to veg out, television is a giant waste of time. Most programs I feel stupider for having watched them and certainly haven’t gained any useful knowledge. I would rather read or go outside just as I was told to do a thousand times growing up. And so I now know that I will do to my kids just what I swore I would never do, regulate the tv. Or maybe I won’t even have a tv. I used to think those people were weird but I’m practically one of them over here. I hardly ever turn my television on. It’s not that I don’t like television I’m just really glad that a television didn’t raise me. I played sports, used my imagination, got beat up by my brothers instead of the mindless entertainment of the tube. I lost brain cells being suffocated under pillows and having my head slammed against the hardwood floors, instead of with video games. And although at the time, I thought I was really deprived, I am now really glad that I don’t have every episode of “Family Ties” and “Who’s the Boss” committed to memory. Because what kind of childhood memories are those? So when I do have kids, I already know I’m going to hear myself tell them to play outside or read a book. Oh, I’ll let them watch some things and I’m not going to pretend if the are crying that I won’t turn on the television to keep them quiet. Some tv can be educational. Maybe I’ll let them watch Sesame Street in Spanish or something but they will certainly not be wasting away their time and their brains sitting in front of the tube.
That being said, I will be watching television with my mom when I get home(relax, daddy). Because just like a thousand other things that are bad for you, American tv you do miss just a little when you haven’t seen it in six months. Mostly I just want to see the culture. I don’t know American fashion, clothes, anything. It will get old real quick though and then I will be reminded why reading or doing anything else in the world is a better use of my time.
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