TV Time...

There's only two televisions in the house that are hooked up to cable. This poses a problem when there are seven people living under the same roof ranging in age from two to like I don't know... My dad has to be, like, 200 or something... Naturally, this poses a problem. We have different people with different "TV needs"... The TV room TV is the only one set up with satellite for Japanese television and pop usually wins out when claiming that it's his TV time... The scramble to the kitchen to see who gets the remote first (because it's never in the same place EVER...) to determine who will pick what everyone is watching.
Now, thankfully, there are TV's in the kids' rooms equipped with DVD players, but there are times when there's something on TV that someone HAS to watch or they'll be the only person in school who DIDN'T watch it and it's worse than the whole "cheese touch" thing... (Still have no idea what the "cheese touch" is...) Really? I remember when we didn't have access to cartoon all the time and we played outside and ran around and played with rocks and cardboard boxes.
I limit the amount of TV time they get because it turns then into little boob tube zombies. You know, the blank stares, their inattentive natures, the slack jawed, couch slouch, mini blobs. But there are times when it HAS to be TV time. Fine, I get that too. It's when they ALL want something different that it poses a problem, which is more often than not. Whatever...
They're starting to come around on the whole, not needing the TV thing. Sure they still watch your occasional cartoon and all, but in trying to curb the amount of TV they watch, it's been a slow process, but it's getting better. I want them to know that experiencing life is far better than just watching "life" (real or fake)happening on the TV. Besides, there's no way we're gonna be able to wrangle the remote away from  the old coot anyway...