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Back in the old days, when I was a child, we sataround the family roundtable at dinnertime andexchanged our daily experiences. It wasnt veryorganized, but everyone was recognized and all thenews that had to be told was told by each familymember. We listened to each other and the interest wasnot put-on; it was real. Our family was a unit and we supported each other, and nurtured eachother, and liked each other, andwe were even willing to admitwe loved each other. Today, the family roundtable has moved to the local fast-food restaurant and talk is noteasy, much less encouraged. Grandma, who used to live upstairs, is now. the voice on long distance, and the workingparent is far too beaten down each day to spend evening relaxation time listening to thesandbox experience of an eager four-year-old. So family conversation is as extinct as my old toys and parental questions such as Whathave you been doing, Bobby? have been replaced by m busy, go watch television. And watch TV they do; count them by the millions. But its usually not childrens television that children watch. Saturday morning, thechildrens hour, amounts to only about 8 percent of their weekly viewing. Where are they to be found? Watching adult television, of course, from the Match Game inthe morning, to the afternoon at General Hospital, from the muggings and battles on theevening news right through the family hour and past into Starsky and Hutch. Thats where you find our kids, over five million of them, at 10 p.m. , not fewer than a million until after midnight! All of this is done with parental permission. | 
