When the TV Broke Down..!
“Television, has changed a child from an irresistible force to an immovable object.”
Lawrence. J. Peter
I‘ve been peeping into the children’s room these summer hols and notice they don’t notice me. “Hey kids!” I shout and not an eye looks up, “Ice cream!” I yell again and even youngest who loves vanilla like her dad don’t bat an eye. Oh yes she does but for Brad Pitt her latest heartthrob’s who’s just stepped onto my screen, in my house taking over my space!
And then I read that Katherine Coroso Jackson, mother of pop star Michael Jackson, explains this about her son: “It all really started when Michael was three or four years old. The TV broke and the kids started dancing and singing to entertain themselves. I convinced their father they were good, and after he listened to them, he agreed with me.”
The TV broke and, well, you know the rest of the Jackson success story.
“Good idea,” I tell myself and switch off the power, not all the power, but the one that’s giving Brad Pitt hold over my child! Aha!
“Dad!” says the youngest as she marches to my room, “The TV’s broke!”
“Start dancing!” I tell her.
“What?”
“Start dancing!”
“Dad the TV’s down, come on you got to do something! You’re a dad!”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Handyman, fixer, mender, repairman! Come on dad!”
“Start dancing!” I say again and close the door.
There’s silence and I think, hey they’re onto books maybe, reading’s good, builds the imagination, better than TV, better than dancing, ma’am Mrs Jackson, I’ve scored one over you!
I slip out and look around.
“Where’s your sister?” I ask the younger as she looks at computer screen at site she’s not supposed to go into. She points to bedroom, I go and find her sister sitting, her back to bed, “Yes, I love you too!” she croons.
“You love who?” I shout.
“Dad! Don’t startle me like this!”
“Who’re you talking to?”
“A classmate!”
“You in love?”
“Come on dad grow up!”
I walk back to blank screen bend down behind, yank hidden wire I’d yanked out and ram it back into plug point, Brad Pitt jumps back and I nearly hug him.
“TV’s working!” I shout.
“Hey Mother Jackson!” I shout, “you only had TV those days, I don’t have no strength to pull out SIM card, internet cord and what else to get my children dancing, TV’s the lesser of all them evils..!
The sound of idiot box in the next room is music to my ears!
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