in my quest to become more educated

I'm attempting to read three new blogs a day...
personally I think computers are boring and when I log on I check my email, myspace page (sometimes, cause no one writes me...maybe cause I only have 32 friends), my bank (to make sure my money didn't disappear, all three dollars I got in there), my child support (to see if by magic the arrears appears in my account), bearmaiden (a few times), fatlady (women, you must write more) and now rawdawg (he has so much shit on his page I gotta visit a few times...I get really overwhelmed very quickly...sorry dude)...but from each site I'm attempting to visit their friends sites to read what other folks have to say...

some folks are boring (I'm sure folks say that about my rantings), but some make a good point...now I don't know how to blog roll or roll blog or whatever the hell you call it in blogworld, and damn sure don't know how to add an active link to my page (bearmaiden, after you finish my taxes- which are a month late I might add- can you help me? maybe we can get it done before SUMMER)...and I already forgot who the hell I read (although I left a comment) but they made a good point about watching television...
poppabear, a certified genius, watches TV ALL FREAKIN DAY...ask bigbear...it drives her NUTS...I can tell his mood by what he's watching when I come over...but his life revolves around the soaps...got it from his grandma...uh, poppy, Nana Jessie's been dead about FORTY YEARS...bigbear feels if he would just turn off the TV he would be productive or at least advocate for himself and make some damn money ("we have enough" he says as he looks at you over his glasses while shaking his head)... but no, it appears to us that TV just saps his motivation...thank God for dialysis...he only misses his soaps two days a week when he's forced to go to work (just kidding poppy...we know you love work)...he says TV gives him motivation, story lines...

moodmagicbarb inherited the TV watching gene...when she was little, it was straight to TV land as soon as we entered the house...I can see her now, squatting on the couch either naked or in her bathing suit (even in the dead of winter) and her red paddington bear rain boots (yes, even when she was naked...I think I mentioned before my kid is WEIRD)...love ya too boo...by the time she was eight I found out she actually read the credits (weird, weird, weird)and would mention casually "oh, they did the music for rugrats too" or "hey, that person does the voice of 'whoever' on the show 'whatever'"...I stopped doubting her when she told me this, but I realized that she watched entirely TOO much TV...

but TV was easy, while I dealt with choclahontas, who ALWAYS had a drama of some sort, I know MMB was ok...cause as long as the TV was on she did not move...but I now realize, as MMB points out to me generally during one of her nastiest moodymoods, that I neglected her...that she was forgotten...it wasn't that she was forgotten, she was just safe and quiet...dealing with the diva, the idiot and all his nine hundred relatives that kept trying to invade my home, I just didn't have the energy to deal with a very strange toddler...now don't get it twisted, MMB got her time...only I could hold her, talk to her, look at her "mama, her eyeballs are looking at me...DON'T LAUGH...DON'T BREATH" she would shriek to who ever was in her space...or looking her way...she slept with me until she was almost ten and I realized the ONLY way I was going to get her out my bed was by sleeping in a twin size bed...

as I mentioned in my comment on someone's page, when I do social histories I ask the families how much TV does your toddler watch...the average answer is four to six hours a day...I have parents tell me proudly that their child will watch TV all day..."they know how to turn it on, off, put in movies, order movies on pay for view"...that's nice lady, but your kid is five and still in pampers and can't put together a three word sentence...
I once read an article that suggested that the rise in autism is directly linked to children's television viewing...the article was discredited and has disappeared (stupid me didn't think to save it)...I agree (of course barring biological and neurological defects)...in my work I see a strong correlation between the amount of TV a child watches and the severity of the child's delay...TV is one dimensional...no matter how they "improve" TV- HD, plasma, I can see every freakin blade of grass during the superbowl...a TV can't talk back, it can't correct a child when they pronounce a word, or help a child understand a concept...and it damn sure won't potty train your child...it's very hard for a child to model or immolate facial expressions or body language from a screen with blinking lights..."my child only watches educational shows" I hear...yeah, but did it actually help your child developmentally? I think not cause your here asking me to "fix" your child...

with MMB, even though she watched a lot of TV, there was a healthy balance with real life...she went to the park, she engaged in imaginative and reciprocal play with me, her nana and her umpteen siblings, and for the most part I watched TV with her and we interacted during the shows...

anything in excess is bad...but I think the day they released TV to the general public was the day society began to fall apart...and now with VIDEOGAMES...its a wrap...but that's another post...