It is Time to Turn Off TV

A friend just bought a new van, calling me over to check it out.  “Come on, bring Alex (my son) along with you.  We will go for a ride.   The van has TV and DVD player, on which our kids can watch movies on the back seat during the drive.” My friend said matter-of-factly, with proud.  Alex and I went for the ride.  My friend purposely did a long drive to Malibu beach so the kids could enjoy their movie in the car. 

It was a beautiful sunny day.  The night before, wind had blown away all the smog which had gathered  over the lower sky of Los Angeles for a couple of days, leaving the sky wash-blue.  We drove along the Pacific Coast Highway, which had been newly paved with fresh white paint on it.  The traffic was smooth, the ocean was calm, joggers ran along the beach while cyclist paddled along the beach bike path in the sunshine.  The air was so clear that we could see some little islands vaguely appearing on the far sight of the ocean, the golden coast line curved its way up to north.  Such beauty of the world always make me have a impulse to pull out my soul and let it to bath in the sun by the beach.  “Look, guys, isn’t it beautiful?” I called upon my friend and our kids.  “Oh, yes.” My friend through a glance at the scene, then she turned her attention to the traffic and the whatever topic she was talking about.  There was no sound from our kids, but the sound of the movie on which all three kids had glued their eyes on.  It was a nice ride, but afterwards, all our kids could talk about were the one and half movie they had watched during the drive.   Later when my friend suggested to have future plans for such drives, I said, “Thank you, but no.”

There are many benefits to have the TV on for kids, for a moderate amount of time.  Unfortunately, I noticed more and more parents allow their kids spend great deal of time before TV.  Yes, some TV programs are educational, enable a little two-year-old utters phrase like “I am puzzled, mommy!”  Yet before you know they would start to sing aloud songs about beer or condem which they had learned from the TV commercials.   Now that not only they watch TVs at home, they watch some more when they ride along with their parents to do errands.  I have seen parents who bring compact DVD players to restraunants when there are suppose to be time for family dinning out.