I’ve been watching a lot of daytime TV lately.
Sunday I came down with the tummy flu. I’ll spare you the
dramatic details, but it knocked me out for a lot of the hours when
I’m usually either working on projects around the house, or out
doing errands.
I’ve been watching a lot of daytime TV lately.
Sunday I came down with the tummy flu. I’ll spare you the dramatic details, but it knocked me out for a lot of the hours when I’m usually either working on projects around the house, or out doing errands.
So Sunday I laid around and watched several hours (or so it seemed) of sports and entertainment news. Since I couldn’t find a substitute, later in the day I had to go into work.
I was doing okay except once or twice. Have you seen those cartoon strips where a character has little dots and bubbles in front of their eyes? Well, that’s how I felt. I thought I was going to keel over. But I rallied.
Monday I did better. I maintained on ginger ale and baby cookies and actually ate dinner Monday night. I thought it was over it.
Tuesday morning, though, I needed to retreat. I spent the day in my jammies alternately reading, dozing and watching TV.
Without cable our TV choices are limited. But I’ve had cable before and I’m convinced it adds quantity but not quality.
The one thing I’m sure about is that if we had young kids, we would strictly monitor what they watched and how much they watched. There’s too much superficial, sensational and downright stupid to allow our kids’ impressionable minds access to it without active parental control.
In these few days, I have seen 11 men cosmeticized into women, a weight loss challenge, several analyses of the Brad-Jennifer breakup and a supermodel contest. Even Omarosa, of the first Apprentice series, made an appearance in a Burger King ad.
There was a news show about how the recent heavy rains make it tough on school personnel to keep kids from climbing the walls, since there’s no way to get physical exercise.
Another news item blamed food marketers for the epidemic of childhood obesity since they market junk food to children.
Horsefeathers.
I say turn off the TV, put away the chips, push back the furniture, and give everybody square dancing lessons.
That was P. E. for me in Illinois in the fifties, when the weather was too nasty to go outside. That or indoor dodgeball.
We HATED square dancing. We thought it was dumb and square and embarrassing. We wanted to rock ‘n’ roll like on American Bandstand. But we square danced all the same and it got us up out of our chairs and moving.
If today’s kids can’t seem to sit still, it’s partly because they’re allowed to sit around in front of the TV or play video games too long. This after riding to school in the morning, sitting around during lunch, and riding home.
In grade school, I walked six blocks to school in the morning, then home for lunch, back in the afternoon, and home at 2:00. It didn’t seem like a lot at the time but it added up to two miles a day.
All that walking didn’t make me grow up to be President, or even an athlete. But I didn’t turn into a pudge, either.
I know times have changed. It’s a more dangerous world now and having kids walk to school may not be safe. Maybe an adult can walk with them. Or find a way to get the exercise in some other way.
If you don’t want to go in for square dancing, how about giving the kids a few strenuous household chores? Just get them away from the TV, and offer the snacks as a treat, not as a meal substitute.
Elizabeth Gage’s column runs weekly in the Free Lance
