The Big Turnoff: Confessions of a TV-Addicted Mom Trying to Raise a TV-Free Kid

by Ellen Currey-Wilson

Alternately hilarious and trenchant in its observations about our media-crazed culture, this is the true tale of a TV-addicted mother's struggle to kick the habit and keep the boob tube out of her... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565125398
• ISBN13: 9781565125391
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
• Length: 339 Pages
• Weight: 1.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.1" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

A must-read for any "alternative" parents

Any parent can relate on some level to the struggles and insecurities that Currey - Wilson weathers in order to give her son the best life she can. Especially for those of us who choose alternative parenting styles, the self-doubt that the author has as she tries to make her way in the world is easily understood - What if my family doesn't understand or support my decisions? Will my child be an outcast because he has nothing in common with his peers? Where can I find friends who, though they may not necessarily share my views, at least support my choices? How far is too far? Reading Currey - Wilson's brave disclosure of her most intimate thoughts and embarassing confessions will help any parent to be kinder to herself as she works to parent from the heart no matter what everyone thinks.

Wish I'd read this book BEFORE I had my kids!

What a great memoir and social "experiment" she conducted. What makes the book so great is she is a nut-case, but a lovable one. I wish she'd been in MY playgroup, wish she'd shared with me her plan. My son has autism and while I do not believe tv caused his autism, I see how it made it worse. But it's never too late to do the right thing and her book was such a gift to me at this moment. I WAS lamenting that he could not "enjoy" all the disney movies my daughter and I enjoyed together. "Will he never be able to follow the plots?" I worried...well, now I can give them all away, gladly, knowing that I can teach him far better than television can. I had restricted their watching to just PBS and videos, but, just like Ellen points out, PBS is the one that gave us teletubbies baby talk, authur/D.W.'s sibling bickering, buster's excessive tv watching of bionic bunny, etc etc. I just feel she shed so much sunshine on our dirty little secret that we're making tv addicts of our kids just so we can get some respite. I'm even questioning my own tv watching habits, limited as they are to PBS Newshour, frontline, bill moyers...all educational, fantastic shows. But when I'm trying to watch pbs in kitchen as I multitask, i snap at my kids when the interrupt... now that I've seen the light, I know that kitchen tv has got to go... but like the author, I'll do my best, set a goal for myself and work toward a plan to get down to 2 hrs a week. I'm going to do the same for my daughter who learned about the disney channel last spring break on vacation at her cousins and has grown addicted. cold turkey isn't an option as my husband loves his cable tv downstairs. But I'm getting me/ my daughter on a plan today! What an inspiration this book is, without preaching! I love it, highly recommend all parents, pre-parents read it. It will change their lives and that of their kids for the better. I wish my daughter could play chess, yahtzee etc. with her son. Ellen if you're in DC area, you look me up, I'll show you and your kid all the sights (we DO go on lots of field trips and know best places to go) and thank you in person for sharing you "confessions"! You're just the sort of comic relief we all need, yet you point out important truths. Thank you. Thank you. Sincerely, Susan Goewey Carey

A humorous look at motherhood and TV

A clever title for a book generally grabs my attention. As curious as this one made me, I was also nervous to open it. Would it be another one of those preachy books by a zealous mother that seem to be flooding the library shelves these days? Not even close! I highly recommend this entertaining book, which almost resembles a memoir. It's so much more than the story of a mother determined to shield her child (even before he was born!) from the perils of television. Currey-Wilson frequently reflects on her own childhood where television became a surrogate parent. She struggles to forgive the mother who was too busy standing up for women's rights to properly take care of her own children's needs. She desperately tackles her own addiction to television while she worries about the effect it will have on her son. Then the opposite happens when he starts school - at times he's ostracized because he doesn't watch TV. Through all this, however, my sympathy for the author's various dilemmas never lasted long, because she writes about her experiences in such a humorous way. It really was a great, great book. I hope to see more of her writing in the future.

So much more than I expected---funny and touching and inspiring

I picked up this book expecting it to be a lot like other books I've read about the evils of television---sort of fanatic and with lots of studies about brain waves and comparisons to drugs and so on. I wanted to read it regardless as I am really trying to reduce the screen time in my house (although it's more my husband than my kids who keep turning it on!). I was so thrilled to find this book was a great read as well as an inspiration! The author instantly made me feel at home. She is honest about herself, hilarious to read and really understands how it feels to be a new mother finding your way in the complicated social circles you have never before travelled. She comes from a family that is wacky, not always in a lovable way, but she loves them anyway. She is however determined to raise her son Casey differently, and she succeeds, to some extent even more than she wants to, as she then has the worries about him fitting in, and how she deals with that is great to read, too. In many ways, this is a book about accepting yourself and being honest with yourself and others. I can really relate to her reluctance to tell everyone at first about her TV views, and how she gradually is about to do so in a way that helps others. I hope Currey-Wilson writes much more. I would love to read a memoir of her childhood, and perhaps a book about her educational journey with her son, and what it's like to raise a gifted child. I hope potential readers of this book will realize it's about more than watching TV or not, it's about parenting and doing so with humor and love.

Such fun!!

I found this tongue-in-cheek book a great revelation for our TV addicted culture. I raised a child without TV and never worried whether he would be different from other kids. I knew he would catch up and what was of real value he would find in books and not on the TV.