WATCHING THE TIME GO BY >BY Charles Fishman

American Demographics, May, 1999

Everyone in the Hendrickson household rises around 6 in the morning, even on weekends. Bryan-taller, with a shaggy, melon haircut and a devotion to schoolwork-can often find time to squeeze in a round of the hot video game Zelda before school.

Chris-quieter, with a stylish look and a natural athleticism-has lost interest in Zelda. But on this morning, when everyone is loaded in the car and ready to go, he is closeted in the bathroom; his Gameboy's beeps can be heard from behind the door.

"Turn that Gameboy off!" yells Mom. "It's just like their father," she says, "in the bathroom with a magazine."

Indeed, over the course of a couple days, most conflicts between Mom and kids come over video games, TV, and Gameboys-which all seem to have an irresistible urgency.

In fact, Chris and Bryan are relatively insulated from the modern media cascade-they read, they study each day, they play endless games of handball against the garage. Only Lindsay has a CD player, and none of the kids comes near to watching the national average of 90 minutes of TV on school days.

There is one way in which the family reflects an important trend noted in "American Children's Time": the Hendrickson kids spend a lot of playtime supervised by adults.

On this Friday afternoon, Judy does something no '70s or '80s mom would have done. She sets up a beach chair at the top of the driveway. So does her neighbor Colleen. Along with their own relaxed sociability-a shaker of Cosmopolitans, garlic-roasted red peppers, and smoked salmon-the pair watch over the whole afternoon of play.