Personal Essay: TV-Free
Why does not having a television make me so unpopular?
by Kate Haas
May 7, 2009
My family doesn't own a television. Our boys don't watch TV. And here's the thing: this is not about you. I didn't want to let the no-TV thing slip. I don't, usually. But my five-year-old spilled the beans when your daughter mentioned Dora and now you're opening
your mouth to speak and I know what's coming. So please believe that my choice to raise children without television has nothing to do with how I view you and your family.
I'd like to explain how it happened, how my family came to inhabit this lunatic fringe of American society. I'd tell you that I credit my lifelong identity as a happy reader to growing up in a home without television, myself. I'd tell you about the books
filling that house, and the hours after school spent immersed in their wondrous scenarios: a wardrobe leading to another world; a mean girl spouting toads from her mouth; kids my own age running away to the Metropolitan Museum! I'd describe how deeply satisfying
it is to see my own son curled up on the couch, lost in a book the way I used to be.
I wish I could say all that. In the few seconds after I ruefully admit that my son was right, we don't have a TV; and just before you quickly assure me that your kids only watch PBS and nature shows, I want to tell you about the books, mother at the playground,
fellow mother. I want to assure you that my decision not to have a television isn't about you. It's about me and The Chronicles of Narnia. But I'm afraid you won't see it that way. Because I've had these encounters before, and I know how this plays out.
My decision not to have a television isn't about you. It's really not necessary to describe your struggle to limit TV-watching to two hours per day. You don't have to justify anything to me and this awkward confession is none of my business. Believe
me, I'm not sitting in judgment. Isn't raising kids hard enough without that? Besides, it's not as if the no-TV stance isn't going to result in power struggles at my house. I put my own parents through it and expect my boys to do the same. In fact, it's too
bad you weren't around to hear my son's response when a friend asked him why we don't have a television. "Because my mother doesn't love us," replied the little stinker, with a sneaky grin in my direction.
Other parental decisions don't seem so fraught to me, at least at the level of personal interaction. My first son was formula-fed, and despite what we're all led to believe, I never faced a flicker of disdain from any of the breastfeeding mothers I encountered.
Non-vaccinators in my circle don't get the hairy eyeball from the rest of us. So what is it about not owning a TV?
©2009 Kate Haas and Babble Media
About the Author
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Kate Haas publishes Miranda, a zine about motherhood. Her essays have appeared in Brain, Child and Hip Mama. She is co-editor of creative nonfiction at Literary Mama. She lives in Portland, OR.
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