TV ADDICTION

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And don't expect your children to find lots of healthful, character-developing ways to entertain themselves the day you start turning the TV off. The initial days may be hard ones, filled with wails of protest and gripes of boredom. (Some youngsters have been known to sit and stare for hours at the spot where the family TV was!)

Do expect to spend more time with your children-reading, playing games, listening to music, telling stories, working on projects. Now, this doesn't mean that you have to be their 24-hour-a-day amusement park. Instead, put some of your efforts into helping them start projects they can do themselves, getting them the tools (art materials, library books, a cassette player) they need for their own activities, and teaching them how to entertain themselves. Give them all of your attention—undivided—sometimes and make it clear that, at other times, you need to do your own thing without interruptions. That way you'll keep your own sanity, and your kids will develop some self-reliance. You'll be doing them and yourself a service.

THE DENVER 15 RETURN

Still not sure you can do it . . . or not sure that you should do it? Then find out for yourself: Do your own one-family Denver experiment. Unhook your home television for a solid month. Then see what happens. See if, after the initial perturbations, your family's lives don't improve. (And write MOTHER and tell us how it works out!)

One thing, though: If you do see improvement, don't just slip back unconsciously into the same old viewing habits when the month is over. Instead, make your viewing choices deliberately. You make the decision; don't leave it to that one-eyed stranger waiting in your living room.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Both The Plug-In Drug and The Read-Aloud Handbook are available from Viking Penguin, Inc., 299 Murray Hill Pkwy., East Rutherford, NJ 07073. Each book costs $6.95 plus $1.50 shipping and handling.

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