Capitol Hill Blue Forums Life and Moral Issues Parenting & Children Children watching television

I wandered down to the pool yesterday to get out of the heat and watched a young girl (probably 2nd grade) splashing around with her grandparents. She had on a cute bathing suit with some cartoon characters that I did not recognize. They turned out to be some Disney people and we started up a conversation. This little girl was very well spoken and was interested in sharing television with an obviously out-of-date old lady (me).

Suddenly her monologue turned into every aspect of the Casey Anthony murder trial. She knew all the details right down to the smell of a dead body found in the car. She picked up everything! Her grandparents seemed pleased and I went into a state of shock! I asked the grandmother how much time the girl spent watching the TV and was told that the television was on all the time. The girl kept saying that the mother lied and she killed her little girl. She also picked up the rumors that the mother was moving to Palm Springs.

If I ever questioned my decision to get the television out of my home; I realized that I was right! The grandmother told me she did not even know what the girl was watching as she does not choose the subjects on the screen. The noise is just on for anyone who wants to listen.

It ruined my day! How can many of us even start to discuss our political subjects when so many of our friends simply listen to the crap being found on every damn television channel?

That story is shocking, Sandune. Second graders should be protected from such information as the Casey Anthony story, IMHO.

Well, if the li'l girl has a life-long habit of watching TV, we know what the studies show...

At least on the computer, we have to think about what we're doing and we're not just passively engaging in an activity.

My kids still don't watch that much TV. They would rather be doing something, than sitting. My daughter prefers reading to TV, especially historical biographies and history.

Yikes! That's like letting your 7 year old watch porn!



Grandma is not fit to watch that girl.

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Letting children watch American television is exposing them to irreparable harm.

No parent who was sane or truly loved their child would expose them to the mind destroying filth that is American television or info-tainment.

In our house the children are only allowed to watch Canadian television. Although--they seem to have become provincial-- and sometimes can’t figure out what state they are in.

I’ll keep you posted numan.

We like to watch HGTV, Food Network and the several Discovery Channels and affiliates. Of course, My children are all adults now and they tell me that they work too much to watch much TV.

Scout--my post to numan was entire snark. Sometimes I just can’t help myself. But I will agree with Sandy that telebitchin is mostly filled with garbage and evolves ever lower as time goes by. Sorry to say I missed that trial entirely. Hundreds of murders daily and someone decided to focus on that disturbed woman. Purely for the sake of the children I suppose. It’s all well intended.

I was literally in my own private Idaho when that sordid tale was put to view--in Owyhee county no less! That’s a land of desert and sagebrush and cell phones don’t even work there. And--if you are so inclined--check out the origin of the name Owyhee. It also has something to do with Cook--ing and lost Hawaiians.

I am grateful that we didn’t get out first TV until I was 8 and even then I spent most of my free time at the beach or getting into mischief with my friends. To me TV was mind numbing--except for Bonanza! That was quality programming.

Now there are 10,487 channels one can numb themselves with. Perhaps that is a good thing--keeps them off the streets and hiking trails and out of my way. I’m on a roll.

Oh---but I gotta go and load Dexter into my DVD. I’m far from perfect.

Ken-Oh, I definitely enjoy watching some mindless crap every now and then. I really enjoy having a mixture of different things with which I choose to occupy my mind. I am not able to hike so much right now, what with my dialysis, but Mr. Scoutgal and I love to take scenic drives all over the country.

I do have to give props to numan's part of the country. When I was 19, I attended a wilderness survival camp in British Columbia, canada for two weeks. I traveled by bus and train from Los Angeles to Prince gerge in the center of the province. We then took a long trip by boat on Natalkuz Lake and a dirt road through Vanderhoof to a remote log cabin(complete with wood-burning stove and icy creek) in the woods. I learned to line off the land and build my own shelter. I can also cook fresh trout seasoned with wild garlic over a campfire, make biscuits in the coals and actually make a wild plum pie in a woodstove.

The scenery was breathtaking, especially as we traveled up the Fraser River. I was able to see Mt. Hood and Mt. Rainier on my trip through the Pacific Northwest, and much of Northern California.

17-mile Drive in Monterey is also spectacular, and Joshua Tree National Monument in SoCal. Sadly, I have never been to Yosemite...but I am working on that!

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Don't bother going to Yosemite, Scoutgal. Its "Protectors" have ruined it with their aesthetically criminal camping "arrangements."

Here is what it looked like before the barbarians got through with it :



The last time I was there, they had not managed to wreck the Sequoia and Redwood parks, though.