~One of my favorites~

Don't get me wrong...my kids watch their share of movies. But I cannot let them waste away their childhood years in front of the television, instead of next to me. I ran across this quote in one of Roald Dahl's books that absolutely inspired me. I love this!



The most important thing we've learned, as far as children are concerned
is never, never, never let them near your television set!
Or better still, just don't install the idiotic thing at all!
In almost every house we've been,
we've watched them gaping at the screen
They loll and lounge and slop about
And stare until their eyes pop out
{Last week in someone's place we saw
a dozen eyeballs on the floor.}
They sit and stare and stare and sit
until they are hypnotized by it,
Until they are absolutely drunk
With all that shocking, ghastly junk
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink.
But did you ever stop to think,
to wonder just exactly what
this does to your beloved tot?
It rots the senses in the head
it kills the imagination dead
it clogs and clutters up the mind
it makes a child so dull and blind
He can no longer understand
a fantasy, a fairyland!
His brain becomes as soft as cheese
his powers of thinking rust and freeze.
He cannot think...he only sees!
"All right!" you'll cry, "All right!" you'll say.
"But if we take the set away,
what shall we do to entertain
our darling children? Please explain!"
We'll answer this by asking you
what used the darling ones to do?
How used they keep them selves contented
Before this monster was invented?
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow
They...used...to...read! They READ and READ
And read and read and then proceed
to read some more. Great scott! Gadzooks!
One half their life was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed
more books waiting to be read!
Such wonderous, fine, fanastic tales
of dragons, gypsies, queens and whales
and treasure isles, and distant shores
where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
and pirates wearing purple pants
and sailing ships and elephants
and cannibals crouching 'round the pot
and stirring away at something hot
{it smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious! Its Penelope!}
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Todd, the dirty rotter,
and Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggywiggle and
Just how the Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Todd, and bless my soul,
there's Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole.
Oh books, what books they used to know
those children living long ago!
So please..oh please! We beg, we pray!
Go throw your T.V. set away!
And in it's place you can install
a lovely bookshelf on the wall
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks
And children hitting you with sticks
Feat not, because we promise you
that, in about a week or two
of having nothing else to do,
they'll now begin to feel the need
of having something to read
And once they start! Oh boy! Oh boy!
You'll watch the slowly growing joy
that fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
they'll wonder what they'd ever seen
in that ridiculous machine
That nauseating, foul unclean
repulsive television machine!
And later, each and every kid
will love you more for what you did.

Roald Dahl