Anna Birkás believes keeping her boys from mainstream media helps their unique self shine through.
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At the flee market my son asks me to buy an embroidered tapestry of parrots for his wall. This gave me the idea to share the things with which he chooses to decorate his room, because they aren’t mainstream things, they aren’t girls or boy things, they aren’t pre-meditated characters, designed by adults to sell to the masses.
My son and his friend sit on his bed listening to a hand held radio of stories. They are 7. Behind him are flowers and planets on the wall, a painting by his grandfather with a rabbit fish in the sky, a wee shelf for treasures, and a periodic table.
He has pictures of cute and not so cute animals, and rockets, and trees. He has an abacus and a dancing, naked tree goddess below the gold leaf sun and sacred geometry project. He has herb prayer flags—eyebright, fumitory, gorse, twopence with a dream catcher below. He has a round mandala and a fishing pole. Once he found a strawberry shortcake picture and put that up for awhile—the only mainstream image that has found its way there so far.
Our boys haven’t been told what to like by media directed at children, so their tastes are unique and reflect their own interests rather than what society tells them. They don’t have the ease of TV and video games to entertain and train them into the roles that little boys are supposed to play. They are able to develop a strong sense of self and attention spans that last, because they are based on real interests of their own. They are wild children, but they also have the calmness and interest to find a little radio, sit down, and hear a story.