TELEVISION gets a lot of bad raps when it comes to our kids.

Apparently, it is bad for their health.

And it can be bad for my sanity.

My son has started to learn guitar, and it has helped him discover his voice.

Not that he had lost his voice.

It now has a musical tone added to it.

I blame The Voice television show, and those performers who get up on stage and not only wow us with their voice and also their prowess strumming a few chords.

As my son practices the two chords he has learned (over and over and over again) he also provides accompanying acoustics.

It is not so much his lack of singing voice that is the problem.

He can hold a tune better than I can.

It is his lack of knowing lyrics to an entire song.

Hearing 'We are the champions, we are the champions, we are the champions, weeee arrrrreeeee theeee championssssss of the woorrlllddddddd repeated ad nauseam isn't my kind of entertainment.

I know he has to start somewhere.

I just sometimes wish it was somewhere else, because in the 'my real reality' version of The Voice I don't get to vote him off.

One thing I have learned about the kids and television is even when they are not watching they are still absorbing.

I was telling the kids how I was taking photographs of Julia Gillard on a recent visit to Rockhampton.

I must admit, my kids are like so many others their age, and have no interest in politics or even the news, so I half expected them to ask who she was.

Instead my son replied "I thought she was in China."

Now I work in media, and I knew Julia Gillard was wheeling and dealing in China last month, but I have no idea how he knew.

His answer was, "I saw her on the telly."

Now if other kids are like mine and have been inspired by television, here is a heads up to all producers out there.

Create a show that has kids cleaning their rooms, doing their homework and being polite to their parents.

It could be titled something original like My Kid Rules, or Master Kid.

Even if only a little bit of it rubbed off on the kids it would be one show every family would tune in to watch.

Mine sure would be.