A friend/colleague of mine boasted posted on her facebook (in connection with World Book Day) that her DC's imaginations "run free" because they have never been allowed to watch telly or play on games consoles. As a result (she says) they love to read! and they run round the house pretending to be ancient Egyptians!
It isn't the first time she has made comments like this and it always irks me. I have to refrain from posting a snarky response along the lines of, "My DS watches telly AND owns a Nintendo DS. Yet amazingly, his imagination still manages to run free!" In fact, we are a bookish household and he loves to read. Yet he has also been infatuated at various points with Ben10/Power Rangers/Dr Who/Club Penguin/Moshi Monsters/Pokemon and I see NOTHING wrong with this. How narrow-minded does a parent have to be in order to think that telly and computer games can't nourish a child's imagination as well? Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating UNLIMITED telly and gaming. I don't even have a problem with families not owning a TV (I know a number of families who don't, and I'm sure their DC are surviving just fine). I just think that fostering love of books is much more about having lots of books around than about banning TV and Nintendo altogether. And I'm sick of the implication that the more telly your DC watch, the less imagination they will have. Pop culture can be pretty damn amazing. If you want to restrict your kids' access to it, fine, but don't be all pretentious about it. Impersonating a Time Lord does not necessarily involve less imagination than impersonating an ancient Egyptian. end rant