Today

I'm feeling sort of off .... always hard to describe feelings, part of the fun :)
In my own bubble, completely insulated, i feel like i need to lash out at something. Of course WHAT is something i need to consider BEFORE lashing out .... but all things in their place. Lord, please send me a telemarketer today *grin* ...

SO i'm chatting with my kids last night, as we do. And the question was posed, "Dad, why don't we have a tv?" ... Now this is ground we've covered before, and obviously something made this return to the fore, so i asked why she ask. Teasing was the unexpected answer, she gets teased because she didn't see this, or doesn't watch that. I pointed out something which re-affirms my decision every time.

TV is a simple choice, yes or no. Either you have one or not. Neither answer should be particularly strange.

However, the reaction of someone to hearing that you don't have one is ALWAYS incredulity. They don't believe you. They can't bend their minds to that. THAT, to me, is odd. The kids agree btw.

SO we've identified that there in indeed something odd about TV, especially by people who watch it, and the "blankness" they display. We discussed soap operas, and how sad it is that so many people all over the world are so totally tuned in to these fictional adrenalin highs (it's always so over excited), that when you visit with them, they pay more attention to the fake lives than your own real life. Again, the kids confirmed seeing all this for themselves, it IS self evident.

They added that the kids at school were very violent minded, and swore a lot, and my kids even put forward that sw that it was violence on tv, amongst other things that pushed the other kids to bad behaviour.

Of course my role as parent and teacher came up, and how seeing as tv is as we discussed above, it was my decision to keep that from them. All of this comes together in the role of the parent to protect, and even asking the kids directly whether they agreed with my decision, they did so. Again, this IS self evident.

I make no pretence to be a perfect parent, and i tell my kids this. However, we all know what our roles and duties should be. For me, to provide the healthiest environment for my family. For them, to learn and follow the rules, while having as much freedom to grow as possible. Accepting that it doesn't always work is good, because then when it DOESN'T, you then have a framework of understanding to fall back on.

Teasing is part of that, when the home life conflicts in some way with the outside world. Something that they have had a lot of already, and will have to endure much more of. Another snippet that came out last night hurt.

"Daddy,they called me white cockroach today, because i'm the only white in my class".

Um, verbatim. Fortunately we are better than that, and i explained how all this nonsense was fear based, INDIVIDUALS who are afraid, and become part of a group to allay those fears, and how from within that group, any stupid or hurtful idea takes flight, and becomes reality, usually to the detriment of someone completely innocent.

However, racism in sa is not dead, it's apparently alive and well, just, well politically correct. It hurts, knowing as i do the real history of sa, and how this one problem has haunted every racial group that has ever tried to live peacefully here.