Quiet Living Rooms

He is married with a child.

“So, did you see the Olympics?” I ask.

“Oh, no,” he said, quickly. “We’re a ‘no t.v.’ family.”

“Oh,” I said, quietly.

Nothing left to say is there?

Apparently this trend has really taken off with some baby boomers and younger parents who want to shield their kids from violence and other issues on t.v.

Not something I would do though I can kind of see where they’re coming from.

Still, I think moderation is the key.

“We don’t have to work at not having a t.v. but we do have to work at explaining why we don’t have a t.v.,” said Carmen Beaubeaux. “We wanted to create a sanctuary or a zone of silence.”

I went without a t.v. for a year once, but not by choice though I went to my sister’s who lived nearby when I could and watched hers.

“I heard about a no-t.v. family who went trick-or-treating on the wrong night,” said Melody. “I knew a kid when I was a child whose family had no t.v. and they were really weird.”

According to tvturnoff.org, 70 percent of the parents who have no t.v. in their home say their child gets along better without a t.v.

No TV Week is held each year at Highland Acres School during the first week in February.

“I send home a note one week before No TV Week telling about the importance of limiting t.v. watching, alternative ideas to t.v., and a calendar of activities at the school and in the community designed to help families change their t.v. viewing habit,” said Highland Acres teacher Kurt Weinberg who came up with the idea. “The note contains the core of the whole notion of No TV Week.”

On a recent episode of “Wife Swap” a no-tv family who got a t.v. during their participation in the show wound up turning it into an aquarium.

“It’s been my belief that the modest step of turning off the t.v. for a month can and will have a profoundly positive effect on each member of any family who goes t.v.-free for 30 days,” said writer Bob DeMoss. “I guarantee that no network executive worth his salt would encourage a viewer to abandon his post, turn off the tube, and go do something else.”