Saturday, January 15, 2005

Katie's kids

I just got off the phone with my oldest (not in age, longest known) friend. I knew Katie before I knew V or Michelle or Matty P, we met in orientation in college. (Ok I admit it, I keep in contact with NOBODY from high school or earlier, but I was a fairly different person then, and unfortunately most of them are the same as they were then.) I hadn't heard from her in a while and had sent her 2 emails around Christmas that I hadn't heard from her on so I figured I'd call and get the scoop. Katie has 2 kids. One, a daughter, is 2 and the other, a son, is almost 4. They fascinate me. Katie & Dave don't have regular TV. Actually, I don't think she has ever had cable TV. Now I am incapable of having no TV, so this in itself fascinates me. But she was telling me about Christmas with the kids. Her MIL offered to get the kids something special so Katie asked them if there was anything special they really wanted. Their answer, "Whatever Santa brings is good." Because they have no TV, they don't have that whole overly consumer driven mindset. There was no demand for a Tickle-Me-Elmo. No need for a new DVD player and all the latest DVDs. No demand for a Play Station 2. They didn't want a cell phone. They were fairly happy with what they got: a sand table, a book each, a wooden train and a few other things. But nothing too terribly over the top. This impresses me greatly. I don't know that I could raise my kids without TV. Of course I don't think I could be a stay-at-home mom either. Probably I should concentrate on finding a way out of spinsterhood first. :)

It was good to talk to her, though. I should call her more often. When I get my boss's job, I may make a plan to go visit her in Vermont.

1 comment:

Stephen said...

I've been weeding tv out of my life for a decade. Actually I was just so poor in college, I couldn't afford much food or tv [let alone cable] - so that helped.
Anyway since then I got a real job, and could afford stuff. So I bought a nice tv, the big fat scary cable package, and for a couple years - watched my will to live drain out through the airwaves.
The strategy I used to get rid of tv was:
1) remove it from the bedroom (seems obvious, but lots of people go to sleep with it on!)
2) only have one tv in the house, and make it a non-central, obscure location so you don't get too comfortable :)
3) When you wanna veg, turn on the stereo/cd player/ipod, instead (it helps force you to focus on things, instead of visual chewing gum that is tv)

I found the less I watched, the less new shows I found out about, and consequently, my interest just tapered off - I didn't know what I was missing :)

I wouldn't say I'm vastly more productive, but going from about 20-25 hours a week to 1-2 hours a week must be helping _some_ project.

I completely agree that it's amazing to see some parenting styles, lifestyles and then think to yourself: awesome/great/spectacular - I could never do that! ;)