The Great TV Turn Off

Once upon a time there was a typical suburban family-three children, one dog, and lots of chaos. The children in this family loved their screens-television, and Wii.

Like all conscientious parents, their mother and father permitted their first born to watch only Elmo, only for thirty minutes and only after her second birthday.

When her first brother came along and her mother needed to feed him a bottle, or was simply too exhausted to play, thirty minutes turned into sixty, and on occasion, the baby would join her. Perhaps she wondered why her brother was allowed to watch television before she had been, but she was so delighted with her extra half hour, she did not inquire.

By the time her next brother arrived, she had graduated to shows like Hannah Montana. And by this time her parents were really, really tired and so they added another hour of television to her daily routine. Her middle brother wanted to be with his big sister, and so he abandoned Sesame Street.The new baby skipped Sesame Street completely, but had the iCarly theme song committed to memory by 18 months.

And so the Disney channel became a fixture in this home, and though the parents were not entirely comfortable with this, they noticed that they could sleep past 5 AM with the electronic babysitter, and they could cook dinner without small people underfoot.

So the television stayed on, and the parents employed cognitive dissonance  to convince each other that it was okay; at least they didn't own addicting game systems like the Wii, or DS.

But the grandparents, seeing how much the kids enjoyed Wii on their visit to Florida, bought the family Wii. And the parents, who had resisted the gaming systems, congratulated themselves. With the Wii, the kids were moving and jumping and speaking to each other! Sure, the house was a bit noisier, but the parents could still have a conversation without constant interruption.

So no one can say what changed in the typical suburban house with the three children and the dog. Why one day the parents snapped and instituted a full electronic shut down unlike any previous retribution. There had been partial shut downs, of course, where one child or another would suffer the consequences and loose their viewing privileges. It was the most effective of all punishments and it ensured that behavior would get back on track quickly.

But that nagging feeling that the parents had so long ago-before Good Luck Charlie was a glimmer in the eye of Disney, and before Mario Kart Wii was on everyone's wish list-began to creep back in.

The children were beginning to behave like addicts.

Addicts get irritable when their drug of choice is taken away. The middle one would suffer full fledged melt downs when the screens were turned off. And the little one, in the true spirit of addiction began to lie to his babysitter and tell her that, "mommy said I could watch just one show," a clear violation of the no TV in the afternoon rule. And the daughter had more shows recorded on Direct TV than her parents had combined.

So one day, when the children were bickering and showing disrespect to their mother and father, the parents ordered a total shut down with no projected date for a turn on. The children were directed to show more deference- come the first time you are called for dinner, clean your room without back talk and for goodness sake, treat your siblings with kindness.

Behavior immediately improved; the parents applauded their genius. Maybe excessive TV and Wii were at the root of problem for all cranky kids. And how imaginative the children were in the absence of screens! Towers and costumes were strewn about the house, evidence of the creativity they possessed.

But then the parents noticed- toys and costumes were strewn about the house rendering a kind of clean up with which the parents did not usually have to contend. Children in front of screens made for a tidy house. This mess started to bother the parents, and as soon as the parents made the kids straighten up, another room went into disarray.

And the daughter became obsequious; a sorry when a sorry wasn't warranted, and absolutely no back talk, which hadn't happened since she learned to talk in the first place. The mother in particular found her daughter's silence after a reprimand to be disconcerting. Where was the sassy pre-adolescent with an answer for everything? Could television and other screens really be so important to these youngsters that they would become model citizens? What other behaviors could the parents correct, they wondered.

And still the parents wonder, a week into the great screen turn off experiment, how far they can take this. Who will snap first? Will the parents grow tired of messy rooms, and early morning voices awakening them? Or, will the children decide that attempts at good behavior are futile, as the parents have no intentions of ever allowing them to watch Nick again. At some point will the kids cease to care, or will they slide back into bad behavior as soon as they push the power button on the remote?

Too soon to tell, for sure, think the parents, but for now, they will enjoy a little more respect, a little less sleep, and hope that the kids forget how to turn on the Wii.