Sorry Readers — Vent I must. Just got off a long radio interview with Detroit’s “Mojo in the Morning” show, where, after being called a crazy, terrible mom who obviously doesn’t care about her kids, the final comment to me and the listeners was, “Watch ‘Law & Order,’ and you’ll know what New York is all about.”
No. Watch “Law & Order” and you will know what TV is all about. One man once wrote to this site a while back — I wish I could find his note — and said that he lives in a quiet, safe Brooklyn neighborhood where “Law & Order” often films. Of course it’s not a quiet, safe neighborhood when it’s the backdrop for that show. It’s a crime scene! And THAT is the difference between real life and TV: Life is, thank goodness, usually pretty dull. TV is filled with the stuff that keeps us glued to the screen: Murder! Rape! Innocents in peril!
It is really easy to scorn a mom would would put her child into that kind of mayhem and casually walk away.
That’s not what I did. That’s not what I advocate. I advocate preparing our children with skills like, “How to cross the street,” “How to ask for help,” and then letting them out into the real world. The boring one you don’t see on TV.
And I won’t even get into the whole radio discussion about, “What if something terrible happens?!” which is a question meant to trump anyone who trusts their kid to do ANYTHING. Ever.
I’m glad I stir up controversy because that gets the issue — and me — out there. A lot. But sometimes, the tsunami of scorn, self-righteousness and media-generated terror gets me down. Off to eat a cookie. – Lenore
