A note about my essay
Feb 20, 2003 Writing
Karen said, “We’re trying to develop Alexander’s awareness of commercial manipulation and give him a sense of independance and a joy in individuality that I dearly hope will help. I want him thinking critically, but not missing out on his generation’s cultural common ground, either. It’s a very fine line.”
She makes such a good point about the importance of honoring our kids’ cultural common ground. It is really hard. Noah is somewhere in the middle in our parenting circle: he watches television but we don’t have cable and we seriously limit what he watches. At our house we don’t watch commercial kids’ television (it’s the commercials themselves that we’re trying to avoid) although he has seen some ofi t at other people’s homes. He’s also allowed to pick one video out at the library each week.
I used to think that even one glimpse of the wrong type of movie would wreck his little brain. It was a lot like the trauma I had introducing solids to my exclusively breastfed baby; I was very aware that I was introducing something foreign to my child’s pristine system. But I’ve finally decided that, like solids, it’s most important to watch for your child’s interest and try to give him or her good choices.
As I’ve written before, I like pop culture and so I don’t think that manufactured entertainment is necessarily a bad thing.
Right now Noah is hugely into Pokemon. He’s discussing it with Brett at this very minute in the kitchen. I can see the appeal of Pokemon and I think I would have liked it as a kid, too. I am glad that we missed the gigantic wave of Pokemon fever that swept through the United States a few years back. It would have made things much more difficult for us to try to live through that tsunami. As it is, we get a lot of opportunities to discuss commercialism. For example he yearns to eat Pokemon gummy, chewy, fruity, gelatin shapes (what are those things called?) and we don’t buy that kind of food. He has the option of buying it himself with his $1 a week allowance but he’d rather save that for the cards themselves. We talk a lot about packaging anyway and he’s gotten really wary about it.
It’s kind of cool to see him hanging with his other Pokemon-interested friends discussing their cards and pretending to be various Pokemon or deciding who will be the trainer. Sometimes it seems like they’re speaking a foreign language and I know he gets a kick out of educating adults who are ignorant to the whole fad.
I’ve asked him what he thinks about his friends who aren’t allowed to watch Pokemon or who aren’t allowed to watch television and he gets it. He appreciates that other families share our concerns about media and kids but that other parents make different choices to address their concerns. He also knows why we don’t let him watch certain things and he’s struggling to understand why we don’t get cable. (He dearly wants cable.)
It’s hard to walk a tightrope between the two extremes — all television or no television — and sometimes I wish I could fall strictly into one camp or another. But I do think the balance is worth it.
February 20th, 2003 at 11:11 pm
Well, I, for one, know nothing about television issues. Nothing at all I tell you!
Seriously though, with our move coming up, I go crazy waiting until 1:30 when I can say, “Kid shows are on!!” and actually get some work done. Bad mama.
Yay! We will see you soon.
February 21st, 2003 at 6:07 pm
Oh my, you quoted me? I’m all a-flutter now.
I was the same way, thinking “good” parenting meant black and white decisions, but eventually reality crept in and I realized that “good” parenting was about degrees of choice and giving our children the tools they need to set their own limits. I walk the tightrope too - but at least walking on a tightrope keeps you awake