Not a TV watcher myself (I've never owned one), but maybe there will be children coming.

But, wouldn't it be nice if the children spent some meaningful time with grandma?

There are some families where TV is infinitely better than conversation. All depends on the family. I wouldn't do it, but I do understand it.

The problem is, today, most digital devices like TVs cannot be fixed. They are to be thrown away.

Good luck to her.

dcarch

Could it have been sports-related? Maybe a big sporting event was going to happen that they could all watch together?

People forget that back in the radio days, all the family gathered to listen to their entertainment. They weren't speaking to one another.

It is rare that I go to a gathering where there isn't at least one tv for kids, one for sports, and even music being played.

I don't see where your DHs client was out of the norm.

No big sporting events here this weekend. I just don't understand why, if you were travelling 100kms or more to spend the weekend with someone that you don't see that often , that TV would be a priority.

I had my son, wife and their 3 kids visiting....kids were about 4 and 7 and we had planned on going to a corn maze and pumpkin farm on Saturday...it was mid October. Well a freak snow came through and with the leaves still on the trees, wreaked havoc and we were without power! I woke to the sounds of quarreling kids who were missing their saturday cartoons. I know what that woman feels!!

I agree with you 100 percent, colleen! It's a terrible shame that people have allowed themselves to become passive spectators instead of participants in their entertainment.

As for a family being unable to converse together- dreadful indeed! The tv has no place in a public room as far as I am concerned. living rooms, sitting rooms, drawing rooms, what have you, are places for family to gather and converse.

Do they not share any experiences together like meals, cooking, books, music, news stories, family news, travel, school stories, pets, hobbies, games, anything in common to discuss and learn from??

I could go on and on about this bore people terribly. But as for me, I have dropped several acquaintances whose eyes are constantly wandering to their screens as we sit together and supposedly socialize.

Long ago I found myself watching a tv program I enjoyed (Mad About You, c.1994.) The sitcom lasted half an hour. Two or three hours after that show was over I found myself still sitting in front of the tv watching whatever was on. I unplugged the TV and had my husband put it away into a closet the next day.

Of course today screens are everywhere and I am not nearly as diligent as I should be about guarding my and my family's time with them, but it is a battle worth waging.

I should probably add that I have worked in media for many years and knowing how the sausage is made makes it most unappealing. I think people watching tv may actually believe that what they are seeing represents reality when in truth NOTHING could be farther from real than the images presented to you to sell stuff.

ETA Have you noticed how many tv shows there are about cooking when hardly anyone cooks anymore?

Perhaps there are shows that everyone enjoys, and they enjoy watching together. What's wrong with that? Being sure the TV is available doesn't mean she is going to have it on 24-7. And not everyone enjoys dawn to dark, non stop conversations, regardless of how seldom they see each other. I don't think her attitude is 'odd' at all. And it may be that the guest who expects the host's' attention be totally focused on himself is being a bit rude and unrealistic.

Rusty

. . . and yet, here we are, playing on the internet.

What is the difference between a T.V. and a computer monitor?

I'd have to say 'pixel density.'

Sol

But I'm not sitting here at the computer while my host is wondering why I came.

In concept it's not unlike whipping out a smart phone while in company.

Sol, for me the difference between the computer screen and the tv is who is driving the experience. But first, it is always a no-no to be with other people and distracted by a screen of any kind for any reason- short of natural disasters and important shared experiences.

But back to your comment about our all being here on the internet, it depends on whether or not we are looking at cute cat videos being passive and entertained, watching time go by or whether we are interacting and driving our own experience the way we do here on GW in a digital discussion.

ETA Looks like I missed the point here and went on a tangent. Apologies. Colleen answered while I was ranting away, I agree with her.

Why the assumption that the lady in question (or her family, for that matter) would spend the entire visit with her face buried in a T.V. screen, or smartphone?

Sol

I think it's nice to have the TV as an option, but not as a primary focus. When we had family get-togethers at my grandparents' house, we would often play cards or dominoes, and these games encouraged conversations. I would not panic if TV were not available, and I do not like to have it on when I have guests or when I visit other people. When I was a child, I did like to watch Felix The Cat on my grandparents' TV, but that was because we did not get that show at home. I often find TV annoying, and when I watch it at home, I mute commercials and sometimes people's voices - especially high-pitched nasal voices that make my skin crawl.

I have to assume that the woman in question is expecting children.

My parents also used to sing and play instruments for entertainment. My father used to play the mandolin and sing on the radio, but that was before I was born, although he continued at home when I was a child. My mother majored in music at university and was a trained opera singer. She used to play the piano and sing opera to me when I was very small, and I very much enjoyed that. I also had an aunt who gave up her opera singing career in NY when she married my uncle (who was a bank president) and moved to Texas to live with him there. After he died, she moved back to New York, however.

When I was a child, I read much more than I watched TV - I did not like playing outside that much because it was too hot most of the time, and I did not have friends living close enough to play with them. There are lots of board games that families can play in case there is no other entertainment available.

Sol, I'm not saying they were planning to spend the entire visit watching TV, but if not having a TV means the weekend will be "disastrous", that to me implies that it wasn't going to be just a matter of thinking of something else to do for an hour or so.

Like I said, there are some people that just don't get along, just think about the painful Thanksgiving dinner stories that we've heard. If TV works to soothe volatile personalities, so be it. I'd rather have the TV on than be forced into 'conversation' with a lot of people.

There may be many definitions for "disastrous". Besides the kids whose routine is broken that Linda pointed out, there's the cranky husband who didn't want to come in the first place and acts like a boor unless you can soothe him with ESPN, the anti-social teen who equally hates relatives but will actually interact some if it's talking about The Walking Dead, the weather addicts who worry that their homes will blow away while they're away, etc.

There are a lot of neurotic people who show up along with the loved ones we can't wait to visit with...

Y'know, the reality competitions do seem to be encouraging a lot of young people to get into things like cooking, sewing, music and dance. Kids need to express themselves creatively. While it's true that a lot of people aren't cooking that much now, it's often because they never learned. They do learn from the TV. Both kids and young adults seem to be far more into cooking than was the norm when I was young. Many are also really into artisanship, good stewardship, etc. I'm greatly encouraged!

Plllog, I am so glad to hear you say the competitive shows are having a positive effect on young people's habits. That's fantastic.

The lady probably has grandchildren who have been brought up with the TV as their babysitter. Such children have no idea how to entertain themselves, have no interest in games or conversation. A grandmother can just do so much if that's how the children are being raised. Unfortunately, she probably knows her family very well...

Colleen, I know just what you are talking about. Elery's son visited last weekend from California, we hadn't seen he or his wife in 2 years, or their boys since last summer. I will also add that I don't have television other than those channels available via antenna, I think we get 7 channels. So, no one watched television but the first thing the boys asked about was the wifi password! Their parents didn't actually ask until a couple of hours later, LOL.

Between touring the farm, driving the Mule, fishing in the ponds, paddling the boat, looking for frogs and generally visiting, the devices were used mostly in the evening. The adults visited while the boys did something with phones/tablets that did not involve the adults. However, the two oldest (16 and 14) were not happy to be dragged away from their electronic whatever to converse with adults. The result was that the only information we got about school, interests, camps, friends or life in general came from the parents, and we won't see the boys again for at least a year. The only thing that interested them more than electronics was the Mule, driving was a far greater attraction than anything provided via the internet, thank goodness. (that's a Kawasaki Mule, BTW, not a living creature, LOL)

And my pet peeve is someone who needs to check their phone, their Facebook, their Twitter/Tweet/Insta-gratification/selfie page continuously while the other person sits there virtually alone. How in the world did we ever live before all this constant bombardment of social media was available to us and we had to wait to get home before we could use the phone?

Annie

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/

It's very different now than even five or six years ago.

But I have to question the idea that kids want TV. Kids wanted TV 20 years ago, not so much now. They want the wifi password, as Annie said.

This particular customer I suspect would not have even heard of WiFi, much less have it.