WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH KIDS TODAY (part 357)? — by Steve Nadis
I always felt that kids who are cut off from television are kind of out of it in a quaint, Amish sort of way. Which is why I’ve trained my children to become good TV watchers–or at least I’d thought they were trained as such. But now the strategy has appeared to backfire as my three-year-old is in open revolt. One night over the weekend we watched a family video (something about a dog?) and the next night the women’s figure skating on the Olympics (which I’d taped the night before). The next night, as we were getting ready for bedtime, my youngest upstart remarked: “I hope we don’t have to watch another movie tonight. That’s boring!” Instead, I was forced to read her a book before bed, all the while feeling like a total, unmitigated failure as a parent. So I ask you (at the risk of repeating myself): What’s the matter with kids today?
Posted by
at
17:49:16
ZARDOZ SAYS :
SEEMS YOU PROVIDE MORE ACTION
PACKED READING ………….
== Z ==
Good God Snake, quick! Get that kid a Gameboy, or a video iPod before it’s too late! The next thing you know, said child will be asking to go to a library or a bookstore….heaven forbid!
Don’t forget the cellphone, the PSP, a Blackberry, or Nintendo DS……you better look out for Family and Children Services by the way. They take your kids for that kind of “neglect.”
You’re right, Doc. Who knows where this could lead?
You raise a good point as well, Z. We need to start reading more boring stuff.
Oh hi, WFW. Will they still get to watch TV?
lol
but i smile even more
& congratulate you
on being a great dad
3-year-olds revolting? Sounds like a mutiny!
Your child is a smart one. Better get her her own library card asap! Bravo, papa Snake. You’re obviously doing good despite your TV-screenplay aspirations.
(tap, tap, on the screen) Have you been doing the character voices and the sound effects from the books? This always makes book reading much more entertaining than TV watching! Playing out the characters’ voices can be tiresome for the parent but so rewarding for a child’s imagination. And their giggles… are to die for.
But Snake, why was your child home in the first place? Bedtime is no excuse! Now more than ever, with access to higher education (aka, the “right” school) at its most competitive, your three-year-old should have been out of the house actively engaged in a) advanced violin lessons; b) synchronized swimming team practice; c) full contact community activism; or d) integrational warp field/stem cell research. Preferably all at once.
You’ll never get her into a proper kindergarten by letting her go to bed, and then what would happen? I’ll tell you what…kiss Princeton goodbye, and say hello to some small New England liberal arts college and a merely average (albeit well rested) life.
Remember, the admissions officers are watching…..
Thanks Tom. But why should my kids go to a better school than I did? See where I’ve gotten as a result of going to a middling school?
Your blog is impressive,it is always in my mind after i read it.