Ever since we got
married and now with 2 kids in tow, we have yet to acquire our own TV.
It is not that we
have planned early on to not have a TV in our house but, I think ever since
those days in the remotest part of Sarawak, we have somewhat come to a
conclusion that TV is not that central and important.
Once an acquaintance
has remarked that, I've better be hurry to get a TV because they are making
bigger and bigger TV nowadays and maybe one day TV is so big it can't fit in
our home!
Our small living
room is perfectly normal like any other living room, rugs and all that, some
basic furniture and we got toys and lots of toys scattered all over the place but
again, minus the TV.
A TV is such a
distraction that I always dread it when visiting a relative with a huge TV set
in the living room especially when it is blaring loudly, because we have to
raise our voice to speak. Even when you tone it down, it still a nuisance. It
takes away your attention because time and again you will be glancing at it.
I myself during my
'single and available' days am an ardent TV
fan so to say. The TV is switched on whenever I am awake in the house and
switched off only when I go to sleep or I am somewhere else. I’ve never miss a
beat of the EPL, Nat Geo, Grand Slams, World Cup games, Euro after Euro... you
name it.
And it is quite
amazing of how I manage to kick that habit and replacing it with another type
of screen. The computer. You see, my soul is painted like the wings of
butterfly and I don’t want it to be corrupted by the biased reporting, silly
commercials or the reruns and reruns from RTM or TV3. Now I have the internet which
is much much cheaper and it has been providing us with the latest news and the
latest of everything ever since. Even the diapers for the baby are sourced from
the internet.
Some people might
ask of what we are doing at home during our spare time. Don’t we need some
entertainment like watching movies? Don’t the kids like cartoon? Don’t we like
join the conversation at the workplace about who betrays who or who is going to
be the next idol?
No.
For us, the kids
are our wide enough moving TV screen. They have been steadily providing us with
new plot and new twist here and there every day. Switched off only when they are
tired and go to sleep.