Just for the record…
Apr 24th, 2007 by Tana
Remember [Un]Gracious Host who would not let [Un]Gracious Guest have the TV on as background noise all day…
Did you hear that this week (April 23 – 29) is National TV Turnoff Week? Yes, it is. In fact, there is a whole organization devoted to getting people to watch less TV: www.tvturnoff.org.
In case you’re interested, here is a handy fact sheet from that site with some food for thought: Warning: Too Much TV is Hazardous to your Health.
I was raised without a TV – as in, we did not own a TV at all. I am not advocating such a stark reality for everyone. In fact, I will admit that we do own two TVs – one in the living room and one in the bedroom [note: none in the bedrooms or the dining room]. We do use them to watch specific shows. Steve likes to watch TV occasionally to unwind in the evening, but I find it extremely difficult to go to sleep after spending an hour watching TV, especially mindless surfing. It drives me absolutely crazy when he switches channels during the advertisements because he gets bored and then goes from show to show to show and never really watches anything. For the most part, my husband is kind enough to go downstairs and do that (I’m usually upstairs at that time of day).
I tried the no TV thing upstairs for a while, but brought it back when NASCAR season started. I love watching the races and knitting and planning my week. I don’t sit there and just watch it, but I like having it on in the background and listening to it as I do other things. I like sports for that reason – seeing someone go through the process of winning or losing gives me perspective on my own life. In fact, I’ve gotten into enjoying watching baseball because I love the stats – if you hit the ball once during the three times you’re up to the plate, you’re doing good, and every time you’re up to the plate, you get three strikes, four balls, and as many fouls as you want once you have two strikes. So hitting the ball once every three times you’re up to the plate is like hitting it once out of every twenty attempts – my life is much easier than that! So I watch sports on the weekends – one event on Sunday – for that very reason.
Other than that, I like to watch my daily news show – Special Report with Brit Hume like some people like to watch their favorite soap opera. I love politics – I find it very interesting to observe politicians and how they play the game of politics. I especially love hearing the round-table discussion during the last twenty minutes of the show – it goes beyond just reporting the facts by offering various viewpoints on what has happened and is going to happen.
I tried getting rid of the TV during supper time, but my news show is on from 5 to 6 and I feel kind of mean telling everyone I can watch my news show but then they aren’t allowed to watch TV. Steve likes to watch TV then to relax, and he’s gotten addicted to a couple shows on the Food Channel, no less. So instead of sitting at the supper table and enjoying our meal together as a family, we’re usually watching TV while we eat supper, which is “hazardous for your health.” When I removed the TV, though, so we would eat our meals together as a family and talk to each other, perhaps, it was met with gruff silence. In addition to wanting to watch my news show and NASCAR races, I decided that perhaps I would find other times where we would spend quality time together as a family. No great solutions yet, but it’s still my underlying intention.
…And as a postscript to the [Un]Gracious Host/[Un]Gracious Guest saga…it all came to an end last weekend when the former landlady of [Un]Gracious Guest died and the new landlord told [Un]Gracious Guest that his daughter would live on the other side of the duplex and she wouldn’t have to move out. [Sigh of relief]