Time Spent Elsewhere

After writing the last blog, I began surfing. I ran across another blog Paul is Dead at modesty.blogspot.com, talking about the time we spent and how we spend it. After doing some research, I learned that Americans spend 3-4 hours watching TV. The research went on to say that even though TV provides great entertainment and is an easy babysitter, children are likely to have lower grades, read fewer books, exercise less and be overweight. With technology increasing, I can only imagine that these statistics have only grown. TVs are installed in nearly every room in every household; kitchens, bathrooms, showers, even cars. Making TV more accessible than ever before.

Instead of bashing TV like its the root of all evil, let me encourage parents who are having a difficulties controlling their kids with the remote in their hand.

-Parents, take charge. Make rules that can be measurable (i.e. the number of TV programs or the number of hours that can be watched.)
-Select deligated times that are used for watching TV (i.e. weekends only, only after dinner)
-Involve yourself in watching TV with your children... you may not be able to watch your favorite ball game, but at least you will know what your children are being influenced by.
-If you are up for a challenge, once a week have a night that is designed to watch a movie (not a TV show but a movie)... sit down without commercials, laugh and talk throughout the movie. Make it mandatory for teens.

The Movie You Play In

A friend once asked me to imagine my life like a movie. According to your life, you are the star of your own movie with many co-stars. Co-stars who make a difference in the movie. They have the ability to change the plot; to make a happy or sad ending; to be add suspense, drama, or humor to the movie. We all have had many co-stars in our own movies and without them, our lives would be dull and perhaps worthless; however everyone wants to be the headlining movie star. Its our nature to keep the spotlight on us during our own movie. It feels so good to have the spotlight on you when everyone is cheering you on. Take a second to think about moving off stage and placing "your" spotlight onto someone else. Giving a leading star role to someone can add something to unexpected to your own movie. Think about the life you can impact by giving someone 5 minutes of your movie, 5 minutes of your time. You will find that shifting that spotlight onto someone else, might move your life from meaningless to meaningful, from boring to rewarding, from a tragedy to a comedy. Who has co-stared in your movie?