Am I really writing about television?

I've probably made my views on television viewing clear before but it's been in relation to my kids and their viewing habits. I know that we're not like a lot of other people in our reluctance to let our kids watch excessive tv and I'm not trying to imply that anyone who lets their kids watch tv is a bad parent. If parenting Will has taught me anything at all, it's that everyone is doing the best they can and it's not for me to judge what may or may not be working for other families and other kids. I only know what I'm comfortable with for our little family and that's most likely different than what others are comfortable with. And it's okay, all of it!

Disclaimers aside, though, my feelings toward television don't stem from some sort of inflated sense of self-importance or the fact that I think television is too lowbrow for me (although, admittedly, a fair bit of it is--I'm talking about you, Two and a Half Morons). We used to watch television. We used to like it. But then we got used to life without it and we've never really looked back. In fact, most days, it doesn't even occur to me that the tv was never on. When a tv is on around me now, I most often find the noise grating, too loud, too much. I much prefer the quiet, especially when "the quiet" is such a tiny portion of my day amid the ever-present din of raising children.

When Will was smaller (much smaller), we decided to abide by the AAP and their recommendation that kids under two not have any sort of screen time. At the time, I found it hard to imagine that Will would benefit somehow from watching tv (still feel the same for that matter) when he could be looking at books or hanging out outside or even going to the grocery store with me, and I feel the same way about Laura as she's getting a little bit older, too. I know there were probably some people who thought we were being a little bit insufferable about it but I'm still glad we did it. If nothing else, Will has never really been regularly exposed to commercials and has no idea what toys he could be wanting or bugging us incessantly about.

Now that Will is older, though, he does get some computer time (we still try to avoid tv time, though) after his afternoon quiet time. He's kind of addicted to PBS Kids and their plethora of games (and the always-appealing Angry Birds, obviously) and I've kind of made peace with the fact that we'll probably never be able to completely avoid him being exposed to computers and/or televisions throughout his early childhood. He also gets one "show" every night before bed via Netflix on my computer. So don't feel too sorry for him, as he does get to do some fun stuff in life.

As I try to navigate the murky, turbulent waters of parenthood, I'm finding that I'm getting more and more comfortable doing our own thing, going against the "norm" without feeling the need to go into long-winded explanations or defenses of our actions (you know, kind of like what you're reading now--hmmm, maybe I need to rethink this last sentence?). I know what's going well for us, and surely what's NOT going well for us.

So no television works for us. Probably not for lots and lots and lots of other people; just for us. I don't like the way things feel when Will watches television. (In fact, I don't like the way our house feels when the tv is on--even in basement, completely out of my line of sight--for Jamison to watch football, like it is right now.) I don't like Will's behavior and completely annoying constant begging to watch more and more and more tv. Other kids can probably watch tv and not display the kinds of annoying behaviors that Will does, which may be one of the reasons I'm so against it for him. Anyway, enough, right?

*****

I've been thinking about television more than usual this week after Coach Taylor won an Emmy (which I, not surprisingly, did not watch). If you don't know the Taylors and the town of Dillon, Texas, get yourself to Netflix and/or the library and get your paws on every episode of Friday Night Lights that you possibly can. I know, after I drone on and on about my distaste for television, I recommend a tv show.

The show, in case you don't know, was tragically canceled after five seasons for which NBC deserves an ass-kicking. It was, and I don't say things like this if I don't really mean them, the best tv show I've ever had the pleasure of watching. I'm certainly no tv critic (well, no "critic" in the having-an-educated-opinion-on-the-finer-points-of-television way) but it's the only show I can ever remember watching and being disappointed, every single solitary episode, when the credits started to roll. It dealt with real, complicated "stuff" and, perhaps one of the main reasons I liked it so much, the high school students in the show were not portrayed as merely attractive, witless characters whose every other word is "like." (It also avoided the opposite extreme a la Dawson's Creek with its characters and their completely ridiculous vocabularies.)

I could go on forever about it but I'll stop here. Just do yourself a favor and watch the show. And then thank me for my excellent taste, of course. Clear eyes, full hearts, etc...right?

(PS. I also used to watch Brothers and Sisters but it was also canceled last season. Me watching a show seems to be the kiss of death, apparently.)