Thursday, May 14, 2009

Drug or Distraction ?

It's true, we have finally had enough and have gone to extreme measures to get retrieve what little time there is left after activities and such, with our children. Mind you we only have 3 very short summer months in which to enjoy the wonderful outdoors here in Alaska. I was not prepared however for the dent that no cable and internet would create in my own life. In my mind my teenagers and children are the culprits of computer and tv over use ... not me, still on the first day without the two, I found myself continuously walking over to sit down and log, only to remember as I was sitting that there was no more internet. After that first day I felt humbled and a little like a recovering drug adict. When the kids came home from school you would have thought someone had died. With faces fallen , the kids sat around not sure what to do with themselves but then an amazing thing happened.... we all started talking to each other. It was great ! It felt sort of like visiting with old friends you haven't seen in ages. Still after a week or so of this the fighting started and now I am remembering why I had the internet and tv in the first place.
there is no
the end

2 comments:

ray said...

This reminds me of the scene from "The Truman Show", or was it "Cable Guy"?, the show ends or the cable goes out, and there's some fat guy on a couch and, seeing that the tv is dark, he puts down the remote and lo and behold, he sees a book and starts reading it.

Happy The Man said...

LOL, this is classic. If there is any family on Internet overload, it is mine. We're not as big on the TV, which was my challenge as a youth. But I have had thoughts of "disconnecting" in a big way and your post was starting to sound like the answer that I might be seeking. But I couldn't help but think about the constant teasing that goes on whenever we lose Internet or essentially whenever the kids are not "plugged in".

In my house growing up, at every commercial there was teasing of some sort going on. It just filled in the blank boring interruptions. I have been happy to not have that teasing in my home now and I know it is 100% attributable to the Internet. Granted, my kids don't interact as much as I'd like, they don't go out much and throw balls or do the "good" things that I did as a child. But I also know they aren't out vandalizing, and doing the other horrible and reckless things that I did out of sheer boredom.

And we don't have the fighting and bickering that I grew up with so I think I'm OK with the way things are. It is in fact the very reason my kids all have their own PC. They may not be as verbally social but their writing social skills are up there. I like knowing where they're at.

I guess time will tell...