Lifelong Crusade Gets Girl TV-Watching Time

“I have been asking my dad to let me watch TV my whole life,” says Fay, a third-grader who has indeed led nine long years of a TV-less existence.  “But it took the constant nagging of my dad’s friend Nathan to finally convince my dad that it was OK for me to watch.  Nathan is my hero”

Which is fine if you want to be a father with principles.  But when you are a kid of a father with principles, it can be a real drag.  I mean, when everyone on the playground is talking about Nickelodeon and you are completely clueless, how much fun can it be?

Enter Nathan.  Also a thritysomething guy, but isn’t spooked by TV at all.  In fact Nathan, who has been friends with Lee forever, was a guy who worked in TV.  So every time he went out to see Lee and the family in California, he was moderately horrified that there was no TV on the premises.

“Nathan started in on us when Fay was really little,” Lee says.  “Every now and then he’d call, and in this very concerned voice tell us that he was very worried that Fay was growing up isolated and deprived.  But we held out against him for a long time.”

“I think Lee was coming from an honest place,” Nathan says.  “It wasn’t that he was a snob or anything.  It was just that he felt TV had been detrimental to his own development, and if he hadn’t watched so much he’d have developed other skills.  Ultimately, though he did buy a TV for occasional viewing–you know Gulf Wars, or something.  But it wasn’t all that accessible for Fay to just turn on whenever she wanted.  Of course, I have reason to believe that there was some unsanctioned TV-watching–including some by Lee’s wife–when Lee was out of town.

“But still Nathan wasn’t satisfied.  “Frankly,” Lee says, “he was real pushy about it.  He’d call and say ‘Is Fay watching enough TV?’  This went on for years.  And finally I guess I caved in.  Because now she can watch an hour a day.  No question Fay is happy with me these days, but it’s nothing compared to how she is about Nathan.  She is mad for him.  How many 9-year olds feel they have an independent grown-up looking out for them and willing to argue with their parents on their behalf?”

Fay says she is really grateful that Nathan talked to her dad.  So grateful, in fact, that a few weeks ago, Nathan received the following letter:

Dear Nathan,

I am writing to thank you for talking to my father about my TV watching.  He told me that you said he was being too strict in not wanting us to watch TV.  Now we watch “Full House” on commercial TV and we watch “Ghostwriter,” “Reading Rainbow,” “Carmen Sandiego,” and “Mathnet” on PBS-TV.  Well, Nathan thanks again for talking to my dad about TV.

Now can you do anything about music?  Dad keeps playing the Todd Rundgren C.D.s over and over.  We’d like to listen to something else for a change.