What a great memoir and social "experiment" she conducted. What makes the book so great is she is a nut-case, but a lovable one. I wish she'd been in MY playgroup, wish she'd shared with me her plan. My son has autism and while I do not believe tv caused his autism, I see how it made it worse. But it's never too late to do the right thing and her book was such a gift to me at this moment. I WAS lamenting that he could not "enjoy" all the disney movies my daughter and I enjoyed together. "Will he never be able to follow the plots?" I worried...well, now I can give them all away, gladly, knowing that I can teach him far better than television can. I had restricted their watching to just PBS and videos, but, just like Ellen points out, PBS is the one that gave us teletubbies baby talk, authur/D.W.'s sibling bickering, buster's excessive tv watching of bionic bunny, etc etc. I just feel she shed so much sunshine on our dirty little secret that we're making tv addicts of our kids just so we can get some respite. I'm even questioning my own tv watching habits, limited as they are to PBS Newshour, frontline, bill moyers...all educational, fantastic shows. But when I'm trying to watch pbs in kitchen as I multitask, i snap at my kids when the interrupt... now that I've seen the light, I know that kitchen tv has got to go... but like the author, I'll do my best, set a goal for myself and work toward a plan to get down to 2 hrs a week. I'm going to do the same for my daughter who learned about the disney channel last spring break on vacation at her cousins and has grown addicted. cold turkey isn't an option as my husband loves his cable tv downstairs. But I'm getting me/ my daughter on a plan today! What an inspiration this book is, without preaching! I love it, highly recommend all parents, pre-parents read it. It will change their lives and that of their kids for the better. I wish my daughter could play chess, yahtzee etc. with her son. Ellen if you're in DC area, you look me up, I'll show you and your kid all the sights (we DO go on lots of field trips and know best places to go) and thank you in person for sharing you "confessions"! You're just the sort of comic relief we all need, yet you point out important truths. Thank you. Thank you.
Sincerely, Susan Goewey Carey