h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't know if trying to shield children from the badness of the world actually works.

Shielding children from badness of world is one reason for not having a telly, yes, but of course it doesn't work, or if it does work the grown-up child is going to have SUCH a shock, also a bad idea. I always think of Ruskin running from the room the first time he saw his brand-new wife naked. Not much like a Greek statue, you see...

But though we had no telly we were not shielded. There were newspapers and my family was highly politicised and there was much arguing about World Issues at the dinner table and we were expected to listen and even join in. So we grew up 'unworldly' as in we didn't know or care abut soaps and popstars and sleb gossip, but we knew ALL about - in theory, I hasten to add - teenage pregnancy, drug-taking, racism, sexism, violence, war, capitalism being the root of all evil (we were Communists, eh). In fact, I always knew MORE about World Issues than my cohort, and thought more about them, and had stronger opinions, and so I donated blood and voted every election I could and went on anti-war marches and pester my MP with emails and am generally involved concerned citizen. So for us, lack of telly was not a protective shild against anything at all except rubbish pop music.

It fascinates me, Z, that we grew up so similarly and yet so differently. It's like a Venn diagram - huge overlap in our parents' parenting styles and beliefs, but coming from such different places. My parents thought telly and popular culture WAS the shield from the Real World and its Real Problems, and wanted us to grow up realistic and politically engaged (which more or less worked, I suppose).

My parents never really engaged with me on anything, apart from having a go when I wasn't performing as well academically as they wanted. I was sheltered from the world quite a lot (both the good and bad things) and was criticised rather than educated when I got social interactions and judgments Horribly Wrong.

The problem with growing up Politically Engaged, is your parents are praising you for THAT, and entirely failing to notice it's getting you bullied as all NORMAL kids want to play Power Rangers or talk about Spandau Ballet, and I couldn't, but I got no guidance at all at home in how to be a normal kid with kidlike habits. I was like a miniature slightly autistic adult. When I came home crying my mother would ask 'well, what did you do to annoy them?' which always made me hopping mad, because as far as I could tell, I was the one crying, not THEM. Also, honestly? Told them all about hump-back whales in a school-marmish voice, probably. A habit ADULTS found cute.

What helped, after several horrible years at boarding school, was frenzied reading of pop-psych books and studying my fellow humans like they were a research project, and then slowly I GOT social interactions in my late teens/early twenties. I think HooToo helped too, I really do.

I just realised that my son has a tv in his room. He's 13. But then, I've not seen it on for more than half a year, and then he was using it for PS2, I think. He does sit at the computer a lot though....

About five years ago, my dad bought himself a Christmas present of a DVD player. I remember him telling me her was pleased because he could finally watch those steam train DVDs that I'd bought him over the last few years.

I can't decide whether it's worse that I'd assumed they had a DVD player, or that he'd been to polite to bring up that the presents I'd bought him were completely useless.

"I just realised that my son has a tv in his room."

You mean you hadn't noticed?

I sort of knew, but since it's never on, it slips out of my active memory, sort of thing...
Makes sense? No? Never mind...