Column: Something About Nothing

I don’t get embarrassed easily. After all, what is there left to be embarrassed about after dropping the metal collection plate in church that is filled with money and having all eyes witness the debacle?

However, watching television with a 7-year-old grandchild came close to putting a little red on my face.

I don’t watch commercials. Commercial time is bathroom time, snack time, check my email and Facebook time. When I watch television with my grandchildren, I am more vigilant. It was proper viewing time, and the program we were watching was a proper program for this 7-year-old to watch. The commercials were not!

I didn’t need a 7-year-old asking about erectile dysfunction, bladder control, IUD problems, condoms or birth control. I had not realized the wide range of commercials during the daytime that should not be viewed by young people.

I was raised in the dark ages. At the age of 7, I had never heard of condoms, bladder control problems or seen people half naked on TV selling bras and underwear. Many of the other things mentioned above didn’t exist in the ’50s. I believe our children need to be enlightened but by how much at what age.

I grew up on the cute laundry commercials and car commercials with the jingles that everyone could sing and everyone could watch. We had something called TV censors, which in this day and age would be called suppression of free speech.

We also did not have to watch commercials by drug companies about their products. For me, those commercials make me want to not use their drug of choice after listening to all of the side effects that are listed and shouted at us on every drug company commercial.

Some people are upset about the toy company commercials on children’s channels. I don’t worry about those, and I don’t think my children worry about their kids seeing those commercials. None of us have a problem saying no when it comes to the toy commercials. I actually enjoy the toy commercials so I can see the latest and greatest when it comes to gifts.

I have a commercial I absolutely dislike, and that is the new Swiffer commercials where people dress like dirt and jump to the bottom of the Swiffer because they love the Swiffer so much. Now I like the Swiffer, but the commercials make me want to never buy another Swiffer again.

I was guarding what we were watching in the afternoon on television making sure it was appropriate for a 7-year-old. I was taken aback when I realized that I also had to be vigilant when it came to commercials.

How much information is too much for all of us and what times are appropriate for that information to be broadcast? There are many kids that are home during the day with no supervision when it comes to television. What kind of information are they getting without an adult to explain what all of the terms mean?

I do happen to believe a little censorship is not a bad thing. We reap what we sow. Our children are the final product.

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send email to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net.