Did Your Parents Make You Watch Documentaries?

[Jadzia]

Never.

I remember my mum was never interested in them, but my father was addicted to his space documentaries, and b/w war programmes and nature programmes. He never pushed us to watch any of them. He was rather boring company whenever these programmes were on. "Either sit there quiet or go in the other room" More often than not we left him alone with his documentaries and I think that's what he wanted anyway

I have a more hands-on approach to learning. A programme/book telling me how stuff is, doesn't keep my attention for long. Whereas a programme/book showing me how to do something and why it works is more praiseworthy.

 

[Finn]

No. I did it on my own.

 

[Mr Light]

Mr Light, what do you think of docos, now? Were you put off by them, or do they now appeal? Filming and voiceover techniques have improved in leaps and bounds over the last ten years.

I still have a childhood-born stigma of them, but I do channel flip to the History Channel. And we like watching nature shows if they're done in a light and funny manor. Basically I will only watch something if it's really entertaining and fun and goofy. Otherwise it brings back painful memories

 

[Gil T.Azell]

Yes sometimes if they knew we had a school project
the "World at War" series comes to mind.

 

[Kestra]

Not to mention that I had a fascination for this one channel that used to show surgical operations, complete with detailed commentary (I believe it was a service for those Medicine students that could not be in the operating room). I must have been around three or four at the time.

My dad sometimes watched videos of surgery procedures (he's a surgeon) and I remember sitting next to him constantly going "what's that?" every few minutes.

 

[WillsBabe]

I used to love watching documentaries with my dad. Loved it. He had a real enquiring mind and would watch loads of them. I enjoyed the time I spent with him, and I learned stuff, too.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I wouldn't say forced" but my dad did watch them, and it was the only TV in the house when I was young, so watch the documentary or nothing.

 

[Starbreaker]

No. I've never heard of such torture.

 

[Jadzia]

"It was the next day, brothers, and I had truly done my best, morning and afternoon, to play it their way and sit like a horrorshow co-operative malchick in the chair of torture, while they flashed nasty bits of ultra-violence on the screen"

 

[Harvey]

No, but I've often watched them on my own. I'm probably more interested in documentary film than my parents. I've even made a few short subject documentaries.

Mostly, my TV was regulated by us not having that many channels until I entered high school. I gravitated to PBS (and the many documentaries shown there) because nothing else was on (outside of Star Trek in its various incarnations).

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

I've been dropped on my head so many times, I can't remember. But I believe they didn't. I liked watching World War II videos all the time though.

 

[Crusher Disciple]

I kept an encyclopedia or two under my bed... it was essential bedtime reading.

Oh, GOD! My dad made an impulse buy back in like 1972 and got two sets of encyclopedias from a door to door salesman. My mother got pissed at him but they came in handy because I read those things like they were comic books.

I even begged her to not throw them away a couple of years ago so I could keep them for the memories. She thought I was crazy.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I kept an encyclopedia or two under my bed... it was essential bedtime reading.

Oh, GOD! My dad made an impulse buy back in like 1972 and got two sets of encyclopedias from a door to door salesman. My mother got pissed at him but they came in handy because I read those things like they were comic books.

I even begged her to not throw them away a couple of years ago so I could keep them for the memories. She thought I was crazy.

I kept one of my home encyclopedias under my desk at school too - a useful second resource to have. I still have it somewhere.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

No, they never had to force me. I love that stuff. In fact, all of us sitting down and watching 'The Civil War' on PBS together for five nights and then discussing it after each installment was one of my last great memories involving the entire family.

But even as a little kid I was always into the documentaries, and especially those of Jacques Cousteau and David Attenborough.

 

[curiously_boy]

No, My Parents never watch documentaries. When i was child, My Mom watched gossip every days, My father watched soccer every Arsenal FC played. And me Played playstation.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I even begged her to not throw them away a couple of years ago so I could keep them for the memories. She thought I was crazy.

I still have my Grandmother's set of encyclopedias from the 1940s.

 

[Messianni]

Wow, there are a lot of us that read encyclopedias for fun as kids! That's kind of awesome.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Wow, there are a lot of us that read encyclopedias for fun as kids! That's kind of awesome.

We're Star Trek fans. Geekiness and bookwormery come with the territory.

 

[iguana_tonante]

I loved watching documentaries as a kid, so no compulsion here. Hell, I still love them!

Wow, there are a lot of us that read encyclopedias for fun as kids! That's kind of awesome.

Hey, I did that too! I was guilty of reading the vocabulary for fun, too.

 

[Australis]

Wow, there are a lot of us that read encyclopedias for fun as kids! That's kind of awesome.

Yes. Yes, it is. We ARE awesome.

And like others here, when my parents sold up and retired, I persuaded them to give me that set of World Book Encyclopaedias. They're on my bookshelf behind me, even though my wife has tried to 'lose' them a couple of times.