THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 10, 1995 TAG: 9512060034
SECTION: REAL LIFE PAGE: K2 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: HAMPTON ROADS TOSSES OUT THE TV
SOURCE: BY KERRY DOUGHERTY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
FOR CHRISTMAS this year, my daughter wants a poodle and my son is asking for a tennis racket.
There is a good reason they aren't begging for ``Totally Hair Barbie'' and ``Power Rangers'' - or whatever is hot in the toy trade.
They don't watch television.
I don't mean they rarely watch it. Or that they watch only specific shows. I mean they never watch television, not ever.
Not watching TV does several things for a family. It shields children from unrelenting sales pitches for junk. And it forces people to find creative ways to entertain themselves - our family has found refuge in books, cards and board games.
We sometimes watch videos together - on the weekends. But never television.
I was heartened recently when my daughter's school held a ``no homework'' family night on a Wednesday.
``What shall we do?'' I asked the kids.
``Play Yahtzee,,'' they begged.
No one even asked to watch TV.
Not watching television makes lots of time. Besides the hours spent reading and playing with the children, I find time to read. I'm constantly amazed by people who say they never read books - no time. Anyone who plops down in front of the TV every night could read a novel a week.
I confess to having a love-hate relationship with television.
During the '70s, when my Saturday nights were often dateless, I stayed home with Mary Tyler Moore, who made being single seem bold and glamorous.
But I got a life in the '80s, moved to Europe for a few years and stopped watching TV. The next thing I knew, it seemed the whole country had changed its relationship to television.
When I returned to the States, I noticed that televisions were no longer located in living rooms and family rooms, they had sprouted up in bedrooms. And kitchens. People were taking little TVs to the beach and to sporting events. American house designs were television oriented. Every new house suddenly had a ``great'' room - a shrine to the omnipotent television set.
I know families who turn on their sets when they wake up in the morning and don't turn them off until bedtime. Others fall asleep each night with the television's flickering their only light.
When people learn that our television set is located in a remote, cold, inhospitable room at the back of our house, they become defensive - there are so many educational shows on television, they argue.
I suppose.
But for every educational show there are hundreds of stupid shows, and millions of commercials .
Sometimes, late at night, I'll put the television on while I'm ironing. But after so many years without TV, laugh tracks have become unbearable. I occasionally watch CNN, but I've never seen ``Murphy Brown,'' ``Roseanne,'' ``Seinfeld'' or even the ``Cosby Show.''
This is not to say my family is in total agreement with the television ban. Sometimes months go by and no one mentions television, but then my children will visit someone with a TV and find their desire for the boob tube whetted.
Last week my daughter told me she was embarrassed because her friends were talking about a television show they all watched and she had never seen it.
And recently she visited a friend's house. When my daughter came home, she wanted to know if we could buy their house if they ever moved.
Why? I asked.
Because they have a television set in the kitchen, she said, her eyes wide. We could watch TV like they do while they eat breakfast.
My husband, who does not completely share my antipathy to television, told my daughter slyly that we, too, could have a TV set in our kitchen.
There's just one problem, I said. It'll be over my dead body.
``Daddy, let's kill Mommy,'' she said with a big grin. MEMO: Real Life is looking for four families willing to turn off television
for the month of January. If you think you could survive without seeing
any New Year's Day parades and the Super Bowl, write to us and in 50
words or less nominate your family. Entries must be received by Dec. 14.
Send entries to: Pull the Plug, c/o The Virginian-Pilot, 150 W.
Brambleton Ave., Norfolk, Va. 23510. by CNB