Beach Broadcasting

Sorry for the delay in posting, but as you already know...the Clemens 6 went to the beach for a few days of R & R.

(Reflection question of the day: Can a mom and dad with four children go on a 3 day excursion to the beach and ACTUALLY get R & R? ) I'll get to the answer later.

Anyway....

I would LOVE to say that the kids were TOTALLY enamored with the beautiful blue skies, the crisp night air, the indoor pool, the abundance of family time, the sandy beach, the tumbling waves of the Atlantic waters, the store bought ice cream sandwiches, frozen pizzas, the frisbee playing, the shell searching, the sand castles. I could go on and on with all the things that we did. Don't get me wrong, the kids enjoyed the above activities. But all of it paled compared to the condo we stayed in and the fact that there were three T.V.'s in the place: one in each bedroom and one in the family room....all with cable.

You see, we only have one working T.V. in our normal home and it is not cable ready. So we are limited to maybe 4 channels (2 fuzzy and 2 clear....if we play with the bunny ears) and so my kids spend more time playing knights, reading, and playing outside with friends instead of watching the tube. I like a relaxing show to watch as much as anyone else (American Idol is the family favorite), but really, there is not that much quality programming that justifies me (or my kids) sitting on my bottom for two unproductive hours when I could be doing something else more interesting or important. That being said, HAVING three t.v.'s to watch at the beach was quite an interesting thing to experience.

At night, the boys would go into their room and watch Cartoon Network until they fell asleep, Rebecca would watch the Disney Channel until she would fall asleep, and I would watch the Food Network,Fox News or simply flip channels until I fell asleep. After being together the entire day, the family would separate into their rooms, not speak to one another and watch a glowing screen. Normally the nights at home are filled with the sounds of children talking, playing, fighting, bathing, drawing, laughing, cleaning....but at the beach.....the nights were filled with silence....no one talked...we all just sat quietly in our rooms and watched cable T.V.... away from one another.

The power of the box.

I was glad to get back home and get back to the normal routine of minimal T.V. watching. As I write this evening, I can hear my son Nick reading to his brother Gus, Chris is discussing the morning routine with Rebecca, Jack is singing to himself as he dresses for bed and I'm....writing this post. It's time to go up and tuck the kids in bed with kisses and prayers.

My life is much more colorful and interesting without 250 channels and a cable bill.

Oh and the answer to the above reflection question:


NO!