[at-l] No TV/VCR

[foshione@dteenergy.com (Elizabeth A. Foshion)]

But, one of the other things that changed for a lot of kids was the availability of safe areas to get that physical play. My husband and I were talking about this last night. When I was a kid (10ish), I could go to the neighborhood park by myself to play. I was a bike ride away from the community center, the pool, etc.  And, I could wander in the local woods without worrying too much. We also had a big backyard and there were a lot of kids in my neighborhood. Not many parents that I know now would be comfortable letting their 10 year old daughter have the kind of physical freedom I did.

And don't forget our "car" culture. Try walking through your average American city, even in affluent areas.

As for TV. I agree about seriously monitoring children's consumption. But I also think they should be allowed to watch a certain amount, and be encouraged to apply critical thinking to what they watch - especially commercials and commercial tie-ins. I sat down with my son from an early age and we deconstructed advertising together. And, I was never timid about banning shows I deemed distructive to good character development. BTW, he's an honor student in his second year at college.

I guess I view TV much the way I view alcohol. Moderate drinking doesn't destroy your liver (and life) any more than moderate watching automatically destroys your critical reasoning faculty. If you start scheduling your life around either - it's time to dry out.

Which then leads to the great invention, the programable VCR. I record a lot of the shows I like to watch and fast forward through the commercials.

Squirrelgirl


> One of the latest "Oh my God" problems in this country is that the kids are
> FAT - OVERWEIGHT - OBESE.  I wonder how much time those kids spend in front
> of a TV (or a computer) - and how much time they spend walking or even
> "playing".  Any bets???  Hey - I'm not exactly a lightweight now - but at 14
> I was nothing but bone, muscle and whang leather.  Overweight wasn't even in
> my vocabulary.  Any guesses about what changed?
>
> Go for a walk - softly or otherwise,
> Jim