By Joan Passarelli

Blue Jeans & Jelly Beans

This week is TV-Turnoff Week. The TV-Turnoff Network asks Americans to turn off their TVs. “Turn off the TV and turn on life,” is its slogan.

TV-Turnoff Week is endorsed by the American Medical Association, National Education Association, Family Research Council and more than 60 other groups, according to Frank Vespe, Executive Director of TV-Turnoff Network.

The Family Research Council said, “Parents are the best defense for children being raised in a hostile popular culture. The first and best way to send Hollywood a message that there is too much sex and violence on TV is to turn it off.”

I heartily agree with this. The vast majority of the product that TV brings into our homes is, at best, mindless cotton candy and, at worst, toxic waste for the soul.

Our family pulled the plug on broadcast TV a year and a half ago. We backed into the decision because of a saying in our house: “If it’s not good for the children, it’s not good for the parents either.”

When we don’t let them eat junk food all afternoon, that means we have to skip it too. When we tell our children they can’t watch a movie because of its content, then we don’t bring it home either. (I can take my better judgment out by myself if I want to see an R movie.)

Back when we still had cable, we limited the kids’ TV viewing, but I didn’t limit mine. I used to put the kids to bed and then watch for 2 or 3 hours every night. The question wasn’t whether to watch, but what to watch, even if the choices were junk. I’d fall into bed later than I’d planned, my mind still buzzing with all the images, and have trouble falling asleep.

The TV that wasn’t good for the kids also wasn’t good for me. I told the cable company to turn off our service.

At first I missed my shows. But now, I’m grateful not to have them available. The free hours in the evening mean I can work on a hobby, talk with my husband, or get into bed early and read.

Ours is still not a completely “TV-free” house. We watch videos every week or so, in jammies, with popcorn, and love it.

And most of the family plays computer games and video games a lot. That’s probably the next area we need to set limits on. Otherwise Saturdays can get lost in a tangle of pixels and wires, leaving the players dazed and cranky by the end of the day.

But without TV, we can do wonderful things. My husband and our 10-year-old daughter have done a couple of stained-glass projects together. I spent a whole weekend recently with her and her friend, helping them each make a small quilt. My son cut up a length of PVC pipe last Sunday, drilled holes in it, and made a flute that really plays. And we always have time to read stories together in the evenings.

These activities, the fun things that make it great to be a family, take hours and hours, time we wouldn’t have if the TV were sucking it away.

Please consider turning off the TV in your house, today or this week, and see what happens. Don’t just restrict it for your kids, but really turn it off for everyone. When you replace those lost hours with good times together, you’ll be glad you did.

Passarelli is the mother of three and lives in Mountain View. Her column runs the fourth week of the month.

Find out more about TV-Turnoff Week at www.tvturnoff.org.