My Media Life

My Media Life

When I was growing up I was always taught that television was a privilege – one that could be taken away if I neglected other important things in my life. Some of my earliest memories of my mother’s control on my television watching consist of a small basket in which we would “deposit” our TV slips each time we watched a program or a movie. Each week she would give my brother, my sister, and I slips of paper with a certain amount of “time” available for us to watch TV written on them. We had to be careful not to use them all up in the first couple days of the week or else we wouldn’t be able to watch anything else all week. I can’t remember exactly how much time she would give us, but I remember it varying depending on the season (she gave us more time in the summer) and our age (as we got older, the more time we were allowed). My mother’s ingenious idea to establish this system upon us not only controlled how much TV we watched, but also taught us some very early lessons on time management.

My mother wasn’t all that strict though with this system. For example, if we were watching a program with the whole family, such as the newest episode of Home Improvement, Full House, or Rescue 911, she would let us watch for free. If we were watching educational programs then she would let us watch for free. If we were watching a family video on a Friday night, she let us watch for free. And of course, Saturday-morning cartoons were obviously free. As we got older, my mom kind of just let this system fall out of practice. We were outside enough, climbing in the pine trees in our backyard, riding bikes all over the neighborhood, or swimming in our 4.5-foot above-ground pool. She wasn’t worried about us not getting proper exercise outdoors. Television was simply a way to pass the rainy days and afternoons when it was too hot to be outside.

When trying to recall some of the television programs that were a part of my childhood, I can think of many.