TV

My kids rarely watch TV. By rarely, I don't mean 30 minutes a day. I mean if there was football on this weekend, they might have seen a few minutes of it. If there was no football on, they haven't seen the glow of the screen since football was on.

Today, David, Jr. was listening to a song book's CD while paging through the book along with the music. He said to me, "It is kinda like watching TV."

Yeah, the only way anyone would say that is if they never watched TV. It is nothing like TV.

Oh, my poor deprived children.

Allyssa asked me the other week, "Mom why can't I watch the movies that you watched as a kid." My parents also didn't let us watch a lot of TV, but we did watch more than my kids do, but I'm also the youngest, so my viewpoint is skewed. You know, youngest children always get to do things sooner than the other kids. It is just a fact of life.

Being the smart mom I am, I asked, "What movies?"
She said, "The one where they sing 'Do, Re, Me,' and the one with the penguins who dance."
Ah. Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music.
"Well, we'll talk about watching Mary Poppins next year. And maybe the other one when you are 8 or 10. Do you know what The Sound of Music is about?"
Allyssa said, "Uh. They sing?"
"Well, yes, they do, but the story is about a family who lived in Austria during the time that Hitler ruled Germany and how they escaped to Switzerland."
Allyssa knows a little about this time in history from books we've read. She responded, "Oh. Maybe I should wait until I'm 12." She tends to be a bit uncomfortable with abuse of races and cultures in books we read as well, so this response didn't really shock me.

Sunday, football was on. Allyssa watched it for about 15 minutes with her dad, then she said, "My eyes hurt from watching it." That's her normal response to the TV.

Yeah. My kids aren't used to TV. They do love books though!