Syag: Sorry, I’ve been gone for a while- why don’t you think that it’s true that the problem with videos has been the content? The fact that frum people, who would otherwise not watch TV are buying Megillas Lester, frum exercise tapes, Step It Up, etc. would seem to indicate that that’s the case…
At least that’s the impression I’ve gotten from the (many) people I know who are raising their kids without TV- they just don’t want their kids exposed to shmutz, though they’re thrilled that they also won’t “loll and slop and lounge about and stare until their eyes fall out” (per the words of the great Roald Dahl) at some screen.
And I’m not using the fact that (I think that) I turned out fine as an argument for anything- I’m simply stating it (for what it’s worth) in case someone will point in the direction of my scarred and tumadik neshama and use THAT as an argument. I absolutely don’t think that EVERYONE turns out fine- I just don’t think either that EVERYONE doesn’t.
As far as the whole thing about “who am I to think I’m better than my parents,” a) trust me, I know the difference between what my parents watched and what they’ve got on today (which is why I don’t watch very much popular TV at all yet I can sing you the Gilligan’s Island theme song) and b) I’m not saying that if my parents did it I should assume it’s the best and I should do it too, I’m just saying that as I’m sure my parents weren’t thrilled with the amount of TV I watched, I can’t be all self-righteous and judgmental and go on about how “I’ll never be like my parents and let my kids watch TV- my kids will do developmentally stimulating activities in a constantly wholesome environment as I serve them gourmet suppers, toilet train them at ten months and play them Mozart in the womb,” because I know enough to know that man plans and God laughs. I’ll try to keep TV at a minimum, but that doesn’t mean that I think that my parents were bad parents by any yardstick.
Oh, and as a sidenote, I LOVED 613 Torah Avenue when I was a kid. I’m actually in the background of a scene, and I know a lot of the kids who were in them.