To the Children of the TV Generation

I pity you. For your brains have turned to mush and your childhood imaginations buried underneath the Sponge Bob, That's So Raven, Yu-Gi-O, Pokemon collections. I feel sorry for you. Your parents took the lazy way out and instead of trying to expand your horizons and challenge your information hungry brains, they parked you in front of the TV. I wasn't one of those kids. My mother fought and fought to keep us away from the 'electronic babysitter'. And I swore when I had kids that I would let them watch whatever they wanted - within reason of course. But to my surprise, I have turned out just like my mother. When Jake was born, we had the television on all the time. That was until I noticed, when he was about 9 months of age, that he was actually watching and paying attention. I would go to pick him up and he would want to be put down to watch. It must be ingrained in kids or something. And that was it. I pressed that "off" button and in 9 years, it hasn't come back on. The kids do watch about 30 minutes of a video before bed and now that they are in school, we have chosen certain educational shows off The Discovery Channel or the History Channel pertaining to whatever they are learning. But for the most part, there is no TV on at my house. The same goes for video games and the computer. They are each allowed 30 min. on the computer. But I don't own the latest and greatest video system or have the largest TV on the block. Those things don't rate high on my priority list. What does rate high is their ability to use their brains and their imagination. Jake even knows why he has such a great imagination. He will tell me, "See what happens when kids don't sit in front of the TV, they use their imaginations."

This is their latest and greatest building toy that was a gift from their Pop Pop for Christmas. This video was made specifically for him.