Thoughts

Sorry I haven't been posting so much; it's been kind of boring round these parts, and I've been still feeling kind of icky, too. But I do generally feel a bit guilty cause I know you regular readers enjoy seeing what shenanigans I'm up to.

I was watching my handyman's kids when he stopped by today to get some details. The kids were playing with umbrellas-- spinning them, holding them under the dripping rain. For some reason it reminded me of when I was about 11 or 12, and I was busted by some neighbor boys walking down the street with a wiggly butt, like the "sexy mouse" types on cartoons. The boys were, for some weird reason, hiding under the neighbor's porch. From that day till much later, they taunted me with a label name that was not at all flattering. No, I will not tell you what it was-- god forbid you all starting to call me that. It's actually something that ought to be flattering, but in the context of four or five annoying pre-teens yelling it as I went by, I can assure you, it was not.

So it got me thinking about how much kids can learn from TV. These kids were spinning those umbrellas a la Mary Poppins or something. Harmless. But I think studies have shown negative things being picked up, too. We don't think about it very much on a day to day basis, but what do kids get from the things that, as an adult, are innocuous. Seeing little girls gyrate sexily like the models on videos can bring it all home how scary TV learning can be, but what other things are easily picked up? Can you think of something you recall picking up as a kid from the TV? Do you already, if you're a parent, or plan to, when you are, limit shows, times for watching, etc? Or do you do the "sit down and talk to your kids" route where you explain things, try to make them realize that TV is NOT reality? We don't watch TV too much here-- mostly DVDs and movies on pay per view--aside from Buffy, which I can't resist, and officially counts as dissertation writing ANYWAY! :) But I don't mean that in the "I'm so superior" way but rather in the "I think there's a lot of crap out there" way.

Anyway-- weigh in if you feel like it. I may have a little bit more time of not being a good poster-- Andrew's leaving for his deployment, and I have to take him there, but then the routine will be back to normal soon. Much writing has to be done, and behaving properly and all... but in the meantime, think over my TV thingy.