The goodness of TV as a childrearing tool

Rachel once told me that when she moved from East 90s to East 50s, she didn't have time to deal with her kids so she sat them in front of the TV while she packed and unpacked. Now her apartment is all nice and cozy but apparently the kids never got out of the habit.

I am a preemptive control freak. I'm bad at controlling things after the fact so I try to preempt. I can't pry a kid off a TV so I rather just raise him without one. One good way at installing "no TV" rules was to find a nanny who would rather go outside to the playground that sit in front of the TV. Delegation is everything to me.

"No TV" or "Yes TV" seems to be a topic that riles some people up, especially on childrearing message boards. Come to think about it I really didn't have a good reason to support my "no TV" policy. I turned out fine. I even worked in network TV for a decade for heavens sake. A lot of my friends were glued to the TV in their playpens and they are lawyers now. But then I remember my childhood, sitting in front of the TV all day, eating snacks or French fries and getting splitting headaches, not to mention gaining a lot of weight. I have a tendency to reflect my fears on my son. Those headaches were destructive to my mood and I'm too old to carry a heavy child. So it's no TV for him.

But how can I resist the remote control when Alex is nagging me to tell him each and every item I am unpacking and asking me whether he can touch the few Baccarat Crystals we have left?

We shipped the TV last. Ken was contemplating until the very end whether we should take it to Japan or not. I wanted to give it to our nanny. Ken thought about the prices these LCD TVs are in Japan. The day the movers came they put it in a box and wrote "to Japan". However, this was the second shipment. We did 2 installments. First was in May, the second end of June. It takes at least 50 days by sea. Our TV is still floating across the Pacific.

So I do not have a remote control button to push. I don't have a choice. I have to deal with my kid. Ken doesn't want to buy a TV when he knows a perfectly good one is coming in a few weeks. I am working from home without a nanny. How do people cope in situation like these?

I finally find a solution. I let Alex watch a movie on my computer while I read paper documents. problem is, since he's been raised without much TV, he gets tired at focusing and his interest wanes in 30 minutes.....