I "heart" Television..hear me out

I am not a perfect homeschooling Mom by AAAANNNYYYY stretch of the imagination.  Let's just say I have my moments and leave it at that.  One of my coping mechanisms at times is the age old baby-sitter, dear old tv.

Last fall, I went with a good friend to hear Steve and Teri Maxwell speak.  It was a nice talk and Steve spoke at the very end.  He described a box in our homes that sucked the life out of all of us.  He was very convicted about this and while my friend pointed out they are the "real deal" as in they practice what they preach and the fruits of their labors are evident, I still can't give up my tv.  (Not to mention the next day I had one of THE worst days in my homeschooling life because I felt like I just didn't measure up to the Maxwell's standards.)  But I'm getting off point, here.

I am brought back to my mother's words to me as a child when I would (I'm sure) incessantly inquire whether any one particular thing was "good for you" or not.  After being asked that question probably a couple of hundred times her reply has been a keeper.  She said, "Ginger, too much of anything is bad for you."

While we try not to keep a lot of news and trivial television on in our house (especially when the girls are around) and we are VERY aware of the influence commercials have.  However we still USE our tv.  We use tv, Nintendo DS's, Wii, and the internet.  But my girls also read books, knit, play board games, play outside, do arts and crafts galore, dance and so on.

This all leads me to the reason I am posting.  I shared on a homeschooling forum a list of television programming that we DVR.  My girls take some of these programs in phases but here is a list of our television repertoire (in no particular order):

• The Electric Company (PBS)
• Adventures from the Book of Virtue (BYU)
• Peep (Discovery Kids)
• Nest Family Animated Stories (TBN and BYU)
• Animated Hero Classics (BYU)
• Fetch (PBS)
• Animated Stories of the New Testament (EWTN)
• Animal Atlas (local Fox Affiliate)
• Jack Hannah's Into the Wild (local Fox Affiliate)
• Magic School Bus (Discovery Kids)
• Children's Heroes of the Bible (HOPE)
• Looney Tunes/Tom and Jerry (Boomerang) - Did I just type that?!?
• Also ABC Family channel will often have a lot of good movies, etc...

I was watching O'Reilly on Fox news the other night (after my kids were in bed) and he had a guy on from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (....have you ever?!?) that wants to SUE McDonald's over Happy Meal toys.  They claim the toys attract kids and make them fat.  My kids have amazingly NEVER really begged to go to McDonald's and they certainly don't care about the 2-bit toys.  As a matter of fact, we don't even eat at McDonald's because their workers are usually not the squeakiest of clean and I saw this video about an alleged 4 year old petrified Mickey Dees cheeseburger.  Therefore we eat at Chick-fil-A 9 times out of 10 for obvious reasons and guess what?  My girls usually TRADE IN their "toy" for an ice-cream.  Gasp!  (That is when I let them buy the kids meal and don't make them buy a sandwich and split it.)  But far be it from me to tell someone else they can't take their children to McDonald's or anywhere else for that matter.  I'm just sayin'...I think because I have limited my girls' television repertoire we don't have these marketing issues and hence the tv is used as an educational tool in our home.  Boy...I am getting waaaaay off subject here....as in stepping from one proverbial soapbox to another...

I recall my husband's deceased grandmother telling how thankful she was when she got her first television.  As a single mother of 2 children in the 40's and 50's she was thankful to have it to keep them busy when she was working.  Isn't that an ironic point of view, especially today?  I think about how hard she worked just to support her family.  She was an independent woman for sure.  A true conservative through to the bone, relying on her own hard work - not others - for just about everything she had.  I am constantly reminded and thankful to the sacrifices that both my husband's family and my family have made so that now our family can be where we are today, particularly being afforded the opportunity to homeschool and hopefully counteract some of modern society's ills.  Maybe one day I will be telling my children's children how thankful I was to have a DVR.

I guess I just feel like maybe we need to lighten up and remember that too much of anything (including moderation or the lack thereof) is bad for you!  I hope this list of television shows will help bless your family.