Sorry Kids, TV’s on the Blink
June 1, 2009
By Suzanne Molino Singleton
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On a four-family camping trip in Pennsylvania over Memorial Day weekend, I had slyly asked the campground ahead of time to tape a note on the TV in our “rustic cabin” (why it had a TV in it to begin with is beyond my comprehension) so that my 12- and 17-year-old teens would spend time outdoors instead of in a comatose position on the bunk beds.
The kids trusted the ‘TELEVISION OUT OF ORDER’ sign, never once picking up the remote to test it, and I was successful in watching them enjoy three days in the woods disconnected from cable television and the distraction it yields to quality family time.
Clearing out the cabin to head home Monday, as the last glob of marshmallow from the s’mores was wiped off the picnic table, I admitted my little trick to the kids.
My daughter called me selfish. My son called me controlling.
After scolding both for using such disrespectful tones and adjectives, I chuckled at my ability to outfox them. Whether it peeved them or not, I didn’t care, because they spent the long weekend building campfires and sitting around them, chatting with the other kids, swimming, playing basketball, roasting marshmallows and listening to my friends and I reminisce about childhood while singing entire theme songs to “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Brady Bunch.”
Call me selfish and controlling, go ahead, but on that camping trip, I was determined that that was as close as my kids were going to get to anything remotely related to TV.
Baltimorean Suzanne Molino Singleton is a freelance columnist here and on www.examiner.com and www.yesnetwork.com (Mrs. Singy: Married to Baseball), and is the creator of the weekly inspirational e-column SNIPPETS (www.snippetsinspiration.com). When not writing, she plays house with sports celeb Ken Singleton and their dependents.
