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Love Letters

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

istock-hands-on-keyboardThese are notes sent to me in response to my latest newsletter article, Confessions of a TV-Using Mom, from the Noble Mother community of mamas. Thanks, mamas!!

***

Congratulations raelee!  Being a TV-free family is great!  We made the same descision when our first child was born, 8 years ago.  We have never regretted it.  We still have a small, 13in TV, behind closed doors in our bedroom, and we have family movie night twice a month.  On these nights, we all cuddle up together, under the covers, and my husband and I enjoy sharing our childhood favourites with our kids, as well as watching timeless classics – like Shirley Temple movies (my 5 year-old’s fave) and the Andy Griffith show (my 8 year old’s fave!).

We’ve also started to watch some select new movies – we’ve even gone to the local movie theatre (we only have one in our small town, it only shows 1 movie at a time, and a kid’s movie about once every 3-4 months) after we noticed that our son was feeling a little out of the loop socially, and my husband and I have definitely added some new favourites to our repertoire.  We’ve talked about product placement with the kids (and for older kids, the movie Josie and the Pussycats is a fun way to demonstrate how this works) and I feel that this advetising stretegy is less overt than commercials, although toy spin-off’s from movies may be alluring even so.

Thankfully, living in a small town,with no box stores, shields us from the worst of that commercialism as well.  Life is far from perfect – the kids fight, they make a lot of messes, they get in my hair (unavoidable in a 900 square foot house!) and they still whine for TV every once in a while, but we also play a lot of board games, we have a family bluegrass band, and both my kids were early readers, and continue to have a passion for reading.  I’ve agonized and second-guessed myself over many of my parenting descisions, but staying TV-free isn’t one of them!  Welcome to the club!

Love, Dana.

***

thanks for the newsletter!
i think computers and TV are about the same — same thing, electronics — no difference.  I try to minimize both as much as possible. when my kids are napping/quiet time (like now!) i try to catch up on the computer.  when they are up, its outdoors time or pool time — anything active to keep them busy.
i totally agree with you about toys!  downstairs in their playroom (as you can see pics on our blog http://lifeonhazelstonelane.blogspot.com) is very minimalist.  some books, some dolls, dress up clothes, an easel for drawing, a table with chairs, etc.  the ONLY electronic toy they have is the TAG book.  i love it.  the kids are calm.  their bedrooms are VERY simple — just a twin bed each, a dresser and a basket of some books.  that’s it.  i wanted them to become connected to nature instead of being stimulated by toys, etc, before bed.
hope today was a great day for your kids at waldorf!
hugs!!!
joy

***

Hi Raelee,

I just wanted to say, “Thank you” for your ezine.
I appreciate your perspective and I often find myself nodding as I read it.
Thanks again,

Maria

***

Hey Raelee,
I think you’ll appreciate this article I just read for the Wilmette course, “Human Flourishing and Moral Development” by Darcia Narvaez:  http://www.nd.edu/~dnarvaez/documents/NarvaezFlourishing2008.pdf

She includes this quote: “Who tells the stories of a culture really governs human behavior.  It used to be the parent, the school, the church, the community.  Now its a handful of global conglomerates that have nothing to tell, but a great deal to sell.” (Gerbner, 1994)

ENJOY!
Lee

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Categories : simplicity
Tags : Kim John Payne, screen time, simplicity parenting, toys, Waldorf

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