Censorship

I am not above censorship with my children; and what is great at their age it isn't considered censorship, just "not age appropriate." When it comes to TV our children are exposed to exactly 6, sometimes 7 TV channels; PBS, Playhouse Disney, Nick Jr., some Cartoon Network ("Just because it is in cartoon format does not mean it is appropriate for children.") HGTV, Discovery (love Mythbusters) and TVLand.

Unfortunately, not all these channels are commercial free. Note to all cable, networks, and advertisers: With each and every smiling Bob commercial, scary movie promo, reality show pitch and every other inappropriate commercial you are only solidifying my husband's argument for a DVR ... Certain commercials do not belong sandwiched between kid's shows.

My children's TV exposure is limited. Their computer exposure is limited, and for the most part their music exposure has been limited. When it comes to music we are talking kid's praise CD's, Laurie Berkner (LOVE HER), the Car's soundtrack (not so in love with that anymore), and what they may hear on Little Einsteins.

Now, their lack of musical exposure is probably due to my lack of musical knowledge, or interest. I like to listen to music, but I'm just not a musicie (you know, like a foodie) OK, it isn't a real word, basically I'm not "into" music. I like to listen to it, but have no particular artists, or genres which I follow, except for country ... I DO NOT FOLLOW COUNTRY. (Sorry Dad, just a tad too much Hank Williams (Sr and Jr) while I was growing up.)

Anywho, in an attempt to expand all our musical horizons we gave EM two High School Musical CD's for Christmas (3 movies which my children have not seen.) And, recently I purchased the Glee soundtrack from Season 1.

I am not a regular viewer of Glee, but seriously you would need to be living under a rock not to have heard of Glee, and at least one of their songs. And I like their songs, at least the songs I had heard, which were mostly renditions of songs I heard during my formative years. The first song on the soundtrack hooked me onto the CD, Don't Stop Believin'. With that song I figured they were all well done covers from cute, fun songs; like Kidz Bop, but well, professionally, done.

Well, maybe I should have listened to the entire CD before purchasing the entire soundtrack, or purchased a few songs instead of the whole CD.

Which, by the way, this non-musical person is loving the whole MP3 download thing. I can purchase ONE song, just one, the one I want, instead of having to buy the whole Record, Tape, CD, just for one song. Usually, the one song I want is the one song which was on the Billboard top 20, the one song real music people would shun, for the other 9 songs which never made it to the Billboard but, in their opinion, far superior in musical originality and quality.

However, some people are finding it hard to adjust and can't bring themselves to purchase just one song, they must purchase the whole album. :::cough:::Hubby:::cough::: He is a little more musically oriented then I, so maybe it has something to do with that. Or, maybe it has to do with his certain Type A tendencies, and one of them is having to waist spend money on a whole CD.

Sorry, I digress.

Anyway, I purchased the Glee, Season 1 soundtrack. On it are several songs from my growing up years, and I was loving hearing them redone. Then there are a few other songs, which now that I've heard the whole song I'm thinking they may not be totally appropriate for my children.

Remember, my 9-year-old still watches Playhouse Disney.

And, at their stage they probably don't know what a "Baby Mama" is,n or "lipo", or have any idea what "the girl was stacked" means. Then again, another amazing feature of the MP3 is I can remove songs from a play list, never to be heard by little ears.

How many more years are left on this censorship power I now hold?

Time is a Tickin'

I'm over 35. How do I know this? (other then remembering my birthday)

1. I get excited over household cleaning appliances. Or, this appliance.
They both deal with cleaning floors. Hmm, wonder what my pet peeve is?

2. All my favorite shows are no longer in production.
Ok, saying "all" is an over statement. But I haven't found enough shows to replace those no longer airing.

3. And, Escape to Witch Mountain has been remade.

Remember Escape to Witch Mountain? Oh, I remember watching this at my Grandparent's house. They had satellite and could get the Disney Channel.

And when I say "satellite" I mean the mongo, calling all aliens, satellite. Not like the little one now attached to the side of my house.

And when I say "Disney Channel" that would be the one and only Disney Channel available at that time. How many are there now?

Funny, I thought about the kids watch the original, but decided to wait until the youngest is a little older. Will I let them watch the remake, titled Race to Witch Mountain? Maybe, at some point. But I'll be sure to show them the original first. the originals are always better anyway.

You Are What You Watch?

What are your favorite TV shows? That was recently asked and it took me awhile to think it over, because:

I used to watch West Wing and Friends, religiously. Used to, they are now off the air.

I also loved Gilmore Girls, and watched them religiously. Except for the season when TV execs thought they would pit Gilmore and Friends against each another. Well, Friends won, for the first half of the hour. And I did a lot of flipping during that first half of the hour.

Hmmm, so what shows are still on prime time? OK, I used to watch ER, until the kids arrived then I couldn't stay up that late. I used to watch Law & Order and CSI, but the story lines began to get to me and I saw boogy men and child snatchers behind every corner.

Oh, and then there is the fact we now can't view NBC or CBS with our Direct TV subscription, but that is more the network's lost, not ours.

I do watch Grey's Anantomy. I'm hooked. Unfortunately. The story lines are a bit much for my puritan ways, but I'm still hooked regardless of the less then moral story lines.

Speaking of puritan ways I also watched Sex in the City, but could only view the TBS version. 1. We only had HBO during the 3 month promotional period and 2. I blushed too much when I did see it on HBO. With the TBS version I don't blush as much, but still can't watch it with Hubby. Don't ask, don't understand.

Oh, and Hubby and I just became House fans. But since they moved the time to 8pm on Mondays we don't always catch it. Plus, it is on the same time as Top Gear, found on BBC America. I'm not into cars, but these guys are seriously funny.

Hubby is into MythBusters, and any other shows found on Discovery and History Channel.

Reality series you ask? Nah, haven't gotten into them. Most of them just seem staged and a train wreck waiting to happen. Then again, the train wreck part is probably why a lot of people do enjoy them.

I'm an occasional Jon & Kate plus 8 and the Duggar family, 18 Kids and Counting, watcher. Occasional because I'm never sure when they are on, and apparently checking the TV listing is beyond my powers.

So that is what we watch. Or what we used to watch. Is it a sign that we are getting older? Most of the shows we love are no longer on the air, at least as original, prime time series'.

***So in writing this up I now know 18 Kids and Counting is on Tuesday evenings. Also, there are several shows without a link. They are without a link for no other reason then I'm lazy and tired of Googling for all these links. That, and I've already waisted too much time checking out all the website, reading them, checking this page and that page, and then realize I've spent 5 minutes on something that should have taken me 5 seconds.

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Maybe, just maybe we, as parents, are doing something right. This was the conversation Hubby and JT had Sunday afternoon while we decided between staying home and (the guys) watching the race or visiting our local children's museum.

Hubby: Do you want to watch the race or go to the museum?

JT: Hmmm, I don't know. Well, I guess the race isn't that imporatant. Let's go to the museum.

Yippee skippy! He decided to get up off the couch and go out and enjoy a family fun afternoon. We are not raising a new generation of couch potatoes.

For more Tiny Talk visit Mary over at Not Before 7

A Lazy Morning

This morning was one of those "you know your a bad parent when ..." moments. No, not seriously, bad, more like lazy moments. First I laid in bed till almost 8am while the kids watched TV. Second, I then let them watch TV till they got bored with it and asked for breakfast.

Isn't this what summers are for, all morning TV watching? Yes I know, these days we hear how kids are addicted to TV and kids don't play outside like they use to, the rising obesity rates, blah, blah, blah. And yes, summers are when kids should be outside, running wild, riding bikes, playing with friends, and going on great expeditions throughout the neighborhood. But, and I think I have every harried parent's agreement hear, every now and then an all morning veg-a-thon is called for. Oh, and to be perfectly honest, I spent my fair share of "nothing but TV all day" days as a kid.

So here was the morning. After showering I decided to leave the kids in front of the TV. For once nothing was on our schedule today. We had no where to go and no great project to complete. I grabbed the newspaper, made some coffee, and organized my breakfast. I was able to sit at the table in peace, eat my breakfast in peace, read the newspaper without anyone asking me "what is that picture all about" or "Mom, look the car is upside down." I checked emails, and wondered how long the kids would watch TV before asking for breakfast.

And, finally someone did. It wasn't that late, maybe 9:30am. JT was wondering when breakfast would be ready (Ready? Breakfast is out of a box in our house), because they have been watching TV for a long time. You should have heard the tone in his voice, as if TV watching had become a chore, something they only do when they HAVE to wait for breakfast.

Really a Mom can't win. When I cut short their TV time they complain and when I let them watch to their heart's content they complain. That is OK, because we won't have many more mornings like this one. Maybe not until the first snow day; or the third snow day in a row, when the snow has melted but because we live in the south they must cancel school for a week.