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I really like this idea, but there's one question that I always wonder how people doing this handle. If your kids are not yet school age, and you plan to send

by zazen 8y ago

I really like this idea, but there's one question that I always wonder how people doing this handle. If your kids are not yet school age, and you plan to send them to school rather than home-school when the time comes: what's your plan for when your children and the other children realise this stark difference between their home environments? Your children will feel they're being denied wonderful entertainment that the other children are getting. Other children will mark out your children as outsiders. Based on my own childhood, I'm afraid I find it easy to imagine your children being ostracised and bullied over a thing like this. But even if they're not, won't they be screaming for TV every night? (No children myself, I could easily be wrong about everything, honest question.)

ur-whale 8y ago
I grew up experiencing the exact thing you describe: we didn't have a TV at home and there was a number of times where I was entirely left out of conversations in the schoolyard about the cool movie on TV the previous night. When I truly wanted to watch a movie that was going to be on, I had to plan a sleep-over at my cousin's. It honestly never bothered me, nor did I particularly feel ostracized in any way by my schoolmates. Neither did I feel slighted by my parents: I grew in the kind of family where when you're a kid, things are what your parent tell you they are are and that's that. You get to argue the rules when you become financially independent. On the flipside, for me, entertainment became synonymous with reading books and doing stuff outside, something I consider to have had a very positive impact on my life. Specifically, IMO, reading for entertainment has a huge advantage over watching stuff: your brain has to work to build the picture from the text and connect the dots of the story. First, it is a very useful skill. Second, if the book isn't good, you walk away from it quick because it's not worth the effort. With TV and YT ... it's much more about passively gobbling up whatever the thing feeds you. That said, in 2018, with the importance social networks seem to have in teenager's lives, things might different. We're not at that stage yet, my kids are toddlers. Once they get closer to pre-teen years, we might have to revisit. I might have to cobble up a device that restricts internet browsing to hacker news :)

by zazen 8y ago

ur-whale 8y ago

I grew up experiencing the exact thing you describe: we didn't have a TV at home and there was a number of times where I was entirely left out of conversations in the schoolyard about the cool movie on TV the previous night. When I truly wanted to watch a movie that was going to be on, I had to plan a sleep-over at my cousin's. It honestly never bothered me, nor did I particularly feel ostracized in any way by my schoolmates. Neither did I feel slighted by my parents: I grew in the kind of family where when you're a kid, things are what your parent tell you they are are and that's that. You get to argue the rules when you become financially independent. On the flipside, for me, entertainment became synonymous with reading books and doing stuff outside, something I consider to have had a very positive impact on my life. Specifically, IMO, reading for entertainment has a huge advantage over watching stuff: your brain has to work to build the picture from the text and connect the dots of the story. First, it is a very useful skill. Second, if the book isn't good, you walk away from it quick because it's not worth the effort. With TV and YT ... it's much more about passively gobbling up whatever the thing feeds you. That said, in 2018, with the importance social networks seem to have in teenager's lives, things might different. We're not at that stage yet, my kids are toddlers. Once they get closer to pre-teen years, we might have to revisit. I might have to cobble up a device that restricts internet browsing to hacker news :)