We’re having issues in our house at the moment. With TV. And our toddler. It seems Ava has developed a rather strong attachment (some would say obsession) to Play School. And some other kids show involving plasticine penguins who seem to have an alarming number of material possessions. For penguins.
But I got to thinking today that TV really gets a bad rap. Sure it can turn us into couch-bound zombies who have an inability to think for ourselves but credit where credit is due … it can teach us so much. For example, years of watching The Brady Bunch has taught me that should a tarantula ever crawl onto my chest during a jinxed family holiday to Hawaii, then all I need do is whisper, “Go away, Mr Tarantula” and hey-presto – it’ll crawl away. Eat your heart out, Bear Grylls.
And what about love? As a Gen Xer I can safely say that everything I know about love, I’ve learnt from watching daytime TV …
Lesson 1. Love never dies. So even if you are kidnapped, held hostage on a desert island, get amnesia and discover that you used to be a European princess (and then you make your way back to Salem only to discover that your husband has remarried a crack-addict police-officer) … it’s not the end of the world. Bo will always want you back. Bo and Hope (or Bope, as I like to call them) on Days of Our Lives and Brooke and Ridge (or Bridge, as I like to call them) on The Bold and the Beautiful are living proof that a marriage can survive infidelity/faked blood tests/double-crossings/bad European accents/you sleeping with your step son/brother-in-law/father-in-law! Divorce? Pfft. Love means never having to say, “Honey, I was trapped on a deserted island, ate some freaky berries, got stoned and that’s why I got jiggy with my step son.” (Brooke, you have a lot to answer for …)
Top Comments
I too wondered why everyone was on about 'the evils of television' after I had children. They learnt so many things from Play School I would never had time to teach them myself, especially by the time I had 3 under 3! They all knew the alphabet song long before they could put a sentence together; they learnt Spanish from Dora (even if I do still have nightmares about that bloody big red chicken!); they learnt big words like "constellation" that I thought were beyond a 3 year old. Now they are older, however, I DON'T like the lessons they are learning from sitcoms on Disney channel etc. At an age when I was learning "Don't play ball in the house" from Peter Brady or that you can still get a date when you're feeling ugly with a broken nose, like Marcia, my kids are learning how to have multiple personality disorder (Hannah Montana), fat kids are always funny, all African American kids are fat/funny/sassy and you have to "shine" to succeed. I know it seems the same as the Brady Bunch at times, but the difference is that so often there is no "responsible parent" at the end with the lesson of the episode; the kids run the place instead! I am dreading my 8yo daughters getting to an age where they want to watch nasty shows like Gossip Girl. How do you moderate TV and what they take away from it with teenagers?
All week with a grade one boy home sick with his youger brother and a Wii not working they got right into play school, saying oh this is a baby show. To then have boxes and paint out making rocket ships.....very cute!!
Not so cute the mess ut worth it for all the fun they had!!!!!