Taking the Tube Underground
Anne Marie Waters on Removing the Television from the Family Hearth
Mom, there is something I want to tell you.” My usually thoughtful, and occasionally lucid, little boy waited dramatically with a grave expression on his pink, sweaty five-year-old face as I unpacked the recently delivered moving boxes. Jack had been playing outside in the August heat and meeting the other young residents of our new neighborhood.
“It’s something I’ve noticed, about us, that is different from the other kids,” he said somberly. Here goes, I thought. We homeschool. We say grace. We go to church. Well, it was bound to come up sometime. “Mom, everyone else has their TV on the main level in the family room. And, mom,” he paused once more for effect, “ours is in the basement.”
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Anne Marie Waters is a freelance writer and former associate editor of The Campaign Insider, a trade publication for political consultants. She and her husband recently moved from Washington, D.C., to Birmingham, Alabama, with their three boys. They attend St. Matthew's Anglican Church.
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