The Big Turnoff: Confessions of a TV-Addicted Mom Trying to Raise a TV-Free Kid by Currey-Wilson Ellen

Author:Currey-Wilson, Ellen [Currey-Wilson, Ellen]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2014-11-14T05:00:00+00:00

I get out the school directory that came with the local parenting magazine.

“Ask about what they do for gifted children,” my mother yells when I pick up the phone to call. She’s about to return to Texas and wants to put in her two cents one last time.

I ask about the toilets instead.

“Are they the modern kind like the ones at Nordstrom? They don’t flush by themselves, do they? He hates those.”

Fortunately, the toilets are fine, kid-sized with old-fashioned flushers. As far as the television issue, Kendra was right about the all-day programs.

No one seemed all that apologetic about it, either.

“We show educational videos, too” is the best some can say.

I check out the shorter programs, where Casey would only go for two and a half hours per day, two or three days a week. There are lots of these to choose from, although many are full. I visit the first one on the list.

“Ours is phonics-based,” the teacher says. She shows me the charts she uses.

I look at the charts and don’t bother to mention that Casey has already mastered phonics. What he needs, particularly as an only child, is time to be with other kids.

“What you want is a cooperative that is play-based,” the next teacher tells me. She hands me a list of these.

I think about the last cooperatively owned business I was a part of, a natural foods restaurant in Eugene. We had weekly meetings where we all sat around discussing whether we should switch to Nicaraguan coffee to help support the Sandinistas even though the coffee wasn’t organic.

“How are women treated by the company?” one of our partners would ask.

“Are they homophobic?” the woman beside me would shout.

No one ever asked, Does their coffee taste good?

Since we were supposed to reach consensus and there were twelve of us, the meetings would drag on for hours.

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