New Jersey Moms Blog

Don’t fast forward, it’s my favorite commercial!

It’s amazing to me how the television viewing experience has changed during my lifetime. As a young girl, I remember turning a dial on the front of the TV to change channels – including a “U” channel (what did that do anyway?) Then I remember how excited I was and how cool we felt getting a new television with a touchpad on the front of the TV to change the channels. Today, I won’t let my son near the TV, telling him to stay away from our flat screen TV – “no jumping around the TV” and definitely “no touching” it!

I grew up using commercials as an opportunity to use the bathroom, get dressed, or put on my pj’s, step into the kitchen for a drink, or do a chore like unloading the dishwasher. Today, my son rarely views commercials, and I’m beginning to think that he’s developed the notion that the commercials are cooler than the programs. Seriously.

After dinner the other day, I was sitting reading with my son, and when we had finished, I turned on TV and began to fast-forward through a commercial block to catch up on the news of the day when Li’l Boo stopped me. “No! Wait – I want to see that!” As the images flashed by. “That’s my favorite commercial!” I rewound slowly. “Yeah, that – Vesicare! It’s my favorite!”

I Want My Food Network and HGTV

Ahhh . . . the new year: 2010. Birds chirping as we awake, heads full of idealism and hope for fresh slates and restarts. I ventured downstairs with my son to turn on the TV as I started to make what was sure to be a fantastic New Year's breakfast surprise: Emeril's bananas foster french toast. Zzzssh . . . . .What?! No Food Network on TV? Cablevision and Scripps are in a distribution dispute? No HGTV either?? Darn it all - four days nesting at home as a family, and no go-to lazy afternoon entertainment.

What I find most disappointing about the loss of Food Network and HGTV from our Cablevision line-up is that these are two family-friendly channels. We have hundreds of channels, but only a handful that I can trust to have on throughout the day as a parent. PBS, Disney, and Nick Jr. are great for the kiddo, but as a WAHM, I'm often compelled to have the TV on in the background as I go about my day - something that complements my routines. Admittedly, several days a week you can find me in my own "Mr. Mom" moment of making lunch and talking back to the television in the kitchen. I can rarely resist an Ace of Cakes or Iron Chef afternoon marathon (as long as it's not during college football season).

Making Sense of the Jedi World

Now that the summer television season is upon us, we find ourselves flipping channels most nights. It was during such channel-surfing a couple of weekends ago that we came upon Star Wars: Episode IV playing on MTV. It had been a long weekend of us painting and moving furniture around, so I was happy to veg out with an old favorite like the original Star Wars movie, and my hubby was grateful to join me in watching something other than a Tori & Dean or The Real Housewives of New Jersey marathon.

Li’l Boo was still awake when we came across the movie so we watched it all together - with me pausing the movie every so often or distracting him with conversation during any potentially scary parts. He excitedly recognized characters he had already come to know like Darth Vader and Chewie through his everyday life and past Halloweens. He asked questions like what are those aliens called? Is that a Ja-wa? Interestingly enough, he didn’t ask any questions about Jedis, or “the force,” or how Darth Vader could choke people from afar using only his hand, etc. Funny the things kids pick up to ask about and what they leave be . . . initially, that is.