{"id":40043,"date":"2023-11-25T00:01:29","date_gmt":"2023-11-25T08:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=40043"},"modified":"2026-06-06T04:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T04:34:09","slug":"tv-or-not-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/tv-or-not-tv\/","title":{"rendered":"TV or Not TV: The Week We Turned Off Our 1980s Go-To Screen"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"TV<\/a>
TV or not TV in 1987. How to keep the rambunctious Peter occupied and out of his mom’s hair? Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’m still getting over the vertigo that came out of the blue a couple of weeks ago. It’s probably viral labyrinthitis, says the doctor. I’m getting better, but my brain is still spinning in my skull, and I’m not feeling enterprising enough to write.<\/p>\n

Brain spin notwithstanding, I have felt well enough to spend some time meandering through the stories I’ve posted here over the years. A piece about the addictive lure of the TV screen caught my attention.<\/p>\n

The Go-To Screen in 1987 Was — The Television<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The piece was written back in 1987 when our kids were small and exasperating — Peter was 6, Christina, 4. At the time, the go-to screen for exasperated moms looking for a way to distract rambunctious kids was the television set.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t long, though, before the television gave way to another, even more addictive screen — the video game console.<\/p>\n

To read all about it, click below:<\/p>\n

(Just so you know. Peter\u00a0 turned out just fine<\/a>. And so did Christina.<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

Our No TV Week — The Kids Survived. But Did I?<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n

\"girl-bumper-car\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"TV<\/a><\/p>\n

TV or Not TV? In 1987 the go-to screen for exasperated moms looking for a way to distract rambunctious kids was — the television set.\u00a0 Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[146,34,393,38,852,82,1152,56,2788,1571,2789],"class_list":["post-40043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-changing-family","tag-christina","tag-dont-miss","tag-kids","tag-mothering","tag-nintendo","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-parenting","tag-peter","tag-screens","tag-tv","tag-vertigo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40043"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48889,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40043\/revisions\/48889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}