TV or not TV: maybe a bit of both



David Bowie and Hill Rolling


Kate:

I read an article in The Times magazine last weekend that suggested that David Bowie only became David Bowie because he was bored and that if he had had the Internet he might never have got bored, thus suggesting that the Internet, computers and consoles could somehow be preventing future creative minds. Of course you could say that the Internet has enabled many creative minds to be discovered, for instance musicians via myspace. But this is not about computers being a promotion tool, it's about them being a distraction, its about people not writing a song or painting a picture in the first place, because it is easy to waste an evening checking out what’s trending on Twitter.

At the centre we don’t have any TVs, the children aren’t allowed to bring phones or hand held computers so when they have free time they are literally free. Their heads aren’t turned by the hypnotising sounds and images of the television, their attention isn’t pulled by the buzz and ‘ting ting’ of text messages and in free time they have to find a way to entertain themselves that doesn’t involve turning on a DS or IPad. The other day at work I watched as a group of children got together on the field and came up with a game to play. It was inspiringly called ‘Hill Rolling’ and involved a group of them rolling down a hill whilst one jumped over them one at a time. It was the simplest game but they were having the time of their lives. Now I’m not saying that ‘Hill Rolling’ is as groundbreaking as Ziggy Stardust, but I do believe that exercising your imagination in that way from a young age encourages creative thinking. If these children were to continue to exercise their minds creatively, instead of burying their heads in facebook and Xboxes, then I truly believe that they will be able to offer more to society and therefore have a more successful and fulfilling future.

I’ve previously described my lucky living situation but what I didn’t explain was that my staff house doesn’t have a phone line, I have no internet connection. If I want to check facebook or post on my blog I have to stay at work late or squeeze it in at lunchtime. This means that I’m not often on the Internet, in fact we don’t have a TV license either; we just watch films when we can remember to post the LoveFilm back. My point? Since moving into the house I have started to cook more and more complicated things, I’ve started fixing things that are broken or worn out instead of buying new ones, I’ve started writing and drawing, I’ve planted a vegetable patch, I go out climbing or running and I socialise with friends. Again I’m not saying that I’m destined for stardom but I am definitely more active than I used to be, I feel better about myself and I wouldn’t change a thing. 

Sara:

Having been ill in bed for the past three days (woe is me!) technology has been my friend, keeping me entertained whilst I lie on the sofa feeling sorry for myself.

I caught up on some television on BBC Iplayer, downloaded  films from Itunes - I can highly recommend Jiro Dreams of Sushi, and played some games on my phone.

But is technology always the best medicine?

Sometimes I wonder how many hours I have wasted in front of the television or surfing the internet and whether or not we’d be better off without it. I feel that my television intake has certainly tailed off since having a baby as we don’t watch television when the baby is awake.

It was a conscious decision not to watch the television whilst she was around a) because if we were watching the telly she wouldn’t be getting our full attention and b) she doesn’t need to watch the television at her age. It’s a distraction, she’s a baby and everything is new and entertaining to her.

It bothers me when parents have Cbeebies on in the background all day long. Let your kids play…it’s just distracting them! Maybe it is driven from a need to entertain the child all the time. I understand that playing 247 is wearing and that mums and dads can’t always give 100%, but there is such a thing as over stimulation. I certainly find it difficult to hold a decent conversation if the television is on in the background, so how are young minds supposed to hone important life skills if Makka Pakka is mikka makka moo-ing (?) at them .

That aside, when my daughter gets a little older, I am not going to be a total TV despot. I recently read this article in The Guardian about the merits of Kids TV, and have to say that it put forward a good argument for the pros of watching telly.

Once again an old adage comes to mind which is true of parenting as a whole (and everything in life), everything in moderation, and this will be our line on television as she grows older for her and ourselves, and will probably stick for most of the hurdles we meet along the way.

Returning to work & COWPAT

Sara:

Here we go…brace yourselves…are you ready for a shocking revelation?

I wanted to return to work after having a baby because…I was bored.

Yes, I admit it, AND I personally don’t think this makes me a bad mother. In fact I might go as far as saying it made me a better mother, because I have a life outside of squeaky toys and touch & feel books, I get to spend time with other adults and talk about adult things and then when I return home of an evening and on weekends my whole attention, 100%, is devoted to my daughter. I hope also that seeing both her father and I work will instil a good work ethic in her.

I must say that I have nothing against women who stay at home with their children whatsoever, in fact, I might go as far as saying I envy the women who can do this, it’s just that I couldn’t hack it mentally. I needed more stimulation. And yes I do have pangs of guilt that maybe I’m missing out on some of the best days of her life, but in other ways she is benefitting from going to grandma’s one day a week and nursery for the remaining three days as she is interacting with people other than her father and me. For the time being we get to spend one day in the week exclusively together, just us, and this time is special, as she gets an attentive, interactive mummy for the whole day. Eventually this will change and I will have to go back full-time, but for the time being, easing into working life suits us all.

I suppose it’s whatever works for you really, different strokes for different folks.

When I did return to work, like having a baby itself, nothing can prepare you for it. By the end of the first week I was nearly in tears I was so tired. You think that nothing could tire you out more than having to wake every two hours to breast feed your baby. Try having to wake at 1am and then 6am (her sleeping pattern had calmed considerably before I returned to work - thank goodness!) and then do a whole day of office work (which I thought would be the relaxing bit, ha!) and then return home to feed, bathe and settle a baby. I remember the days sans child. I used to come home, slip my shoes off, casually throw a nice meal together, sit down, watch a bit of telly, maybe a glass of wine…ah bliss.

These days are different but in a good way. Now I come home feed the baby, bath the baby, settle the baby in bed, hose down the post-dinner/apocalypse kitchen mess, tidy baby toys to enable access to the living room carpet, and then sit down and relax…ah bliss!

Kate:

If you asked me what we teach at the centre I work at I’d be inclined to answer with one word… survival. Think of the film The Day After Tomorrow, the skills required to survive the film are fire lighting and shelter building (covered by our bushcraft activity), long distance walking and rope work (covered by our climbing and off site walking). We teach compass and map work, archery and we encourage team building, giving everyone the chance to lead the group, like being Rick in The Walking Dead, only without the zombies.

Thinking about this in a less extreme way, the things we teach are preparing young people for life. They learn that there are lots of things in life people don’t want to do but they just have to get on with it, be that working with people they don’t get on with, going down a dark cave or getting their hands muddy. They also learn Mummy and Daddy aren’t always right, just because your mum doesn’t like lifts and says she is claustrophobic, it doesn’t mean you are and therefore you might actually enjoy the caves. Getting cold and wet can be fun and getting a bit lost in the woods can be exciting not scary. You have to try things to find out if you really like or dislike them.

I believe it is best to learn these things at an early age, then you can just get on with your life and whatever it throws at you, but I still think there are a few things that adults could learn from the activities that we run. In November last year I attended a canoe and kayaking coaching course at Trentham Lake. During the course I came up with an acronym to teach some basic forward paddling improvements: COWPAT.

Below I’ve translated the acronym to one that could be used perhaps in your place of work or just in everyday life.

COW is the things you might be doing wrong:

C – continuing your arm stroke too long  - continuing to think too much

O - overboard – rocking the boat  - moaning to the wrong people

W - working too hard – doing other people’s jobs

PAT is the way you can improve:

P – posture and connectivity –be nice and listen to people but…

A – arms length - be careful whom you talk about your own problems with

T – trunk rotation – be prepared to turn around and walk away

I even came up with a game to keep it in mind; it’s basically tick. The participants each have a picture of a cow taped to the back of their boat and they have 5 or 10 minutes to PAT as many COWs as possible. The person with the most PATs wins! Simple.

Not sure how acceptable it is to stick cow pats to people’s back at work, but it might make you feel better?