Who was it who said the television would never catch on? It’s long past the day of one in every household. Most families I know have at least two and some have three, four or more. We happen to be a three-television family, with none in the children’s rooms.

In our house, what and how much the children watch TV is monitored. We have cable, but no premium channels. Even then, some of the "regular" channels have programming and even commercials that are inappropriate for kids.

A few years ago, my children wanted a VideoNow player. I mistakenly thought it was an individual viewer to play DVDs. I thought it might be great for long car trips, so I checked it out and found it did not play regular DVDs but only certain discs made by the VideoNow manufacturer. The discs that were available were all television programs that they watch anyway. You know the ones: "Sponge Bob Square Pants," "Lizzie McGuire," etc. Why would I give them a player to play stuff they’ve seen a million times?

Now I’m hearing about elementary-age kids with cell phones and companies that are marketing phones for kids as young as 6. There may be some advantages to allowing your child a phone to call home in an emergency, but really, how many times is a 6-year-old very far from an adult? Not often I would think.

We got my oldest a cell phone because he’s busy with high school sports and such and can’t drive yet. He needed one so we could make sure we stayed in contact. Being a boy, we don’t have to worry about him using up too many minutes because he doesn’t really talk that much.

Now he wants a better phone, one that plays music and takes pictures and doubles as a scheduler/Palm Pilot sort of thing and I suppose walks on water, as well.

One day I tried to call oldest boy. He was supposed to be waiting for me after basketball practice. He didn’t hear the phone. I tried to call him after school another day as I had waited so long that cobwebs were appearing around my tired head. He didn’t have his phone on. Yet another day he had loaned it to a friend.

One evening I could even see him looking out the window for me after a church youth event. After he walked away to rejoin his friends, I parked the car to head in and get him. I put one foot out the door and hit pure ice. I was on my back in seconds and hanging out the car door. His cell phone was at home charging.

Oh, the irony.

Now my other three children think they deserve cell phones. The girls in particular are mesmerized with the devices.

"When do I get one?" youngest one asks. "All my friends have one."

"When you are a responsible young adult and can pay for the service," I say. She is the one who took her brand-new CD player to school the day after her birthday, and it never came home. She has trouble keeping track of boots, hats, gloves, etc. She lost her snow bibs so decided to borrow her brother’s and lost those, too.

Oh, she and her sibling get all the things they need. They get three meals a day, new clothes and shoes when they outgrow the old ones, help with homework and advice when they have a problem. They get love and understanding and everything they need to grow into healthy, happy adults. That’s what I think anyway.

They think that what they don’t get (every gadget known to modern man) is depriving them of life, liberty and the pursuit of whatever makes them happy.

In this electronics-driven world, my children don’t get carte blanche on the computer to surf the net and IM their friends. In fact, they’ve never instant messaged at home. Their computer time is monitored, we have parental controls in place, and we have a password that won’t allow them to get on when we aren’t around.

My kids have to ask permission to play GameCube and get a set amount of time to play. It’s put away because there was too much of a rush to get to the games and homework was being slighted. We felt grades were more important. We will not be buying them the newest Playstation, Nintendo or PSP, even though they ask for them.