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"Pretty much the only time I use my living room is when the media is here. After all, it&amp;#039;s the only room in the house that&amp;#039;s devoid of model airplanes, Star Wars light sabers and dust bunnies. Most of the time, anyway. And light sabers distract the camera-man. This week, CBS will be here for their third TV shoot in my otherwise eventless living room. They like to get my friends and me together to riff about motherhood on the air, and I&amp;#039;m happy to use my living room sofa for a change. The only other time I sit on it is when I&amp;#039;m hiding from the kids, trying to have an uninterrupted phone call, and that never lasts long. As a parenting author, I&amp;#039;ve had a few TV crews and several photographers set up shop in my living room, which is far too nice for my boys and their muddy friends to race through. Besides, when the media is here, I get to wear make-up and talk to grown-ups. Also, whenever I sit on the couch, I decrease our cost-per-use rate. I think we&amp;#039;re down to about $90 per sit now. This is more than I can say for the dining room, which gets used on Thanksgiving and that&amp;#039;s pretty much it. For years, only my cat ate in the dining room, and that&amp;#039;s just so the kids would stay out of his food bowl.  Right now, it&amp;#039;s the staging area for our home remodeling. The dining room table is covered in architect&amp;#039;s plans, tile samples and kitchen cabinet brochures. I&amp;#039;d clean it up before the media gets here, but they&amp;#039;re only interested in the living room. Hmmmm. Better sweep the living room for light sabers, just in case. I don&amp;#039;t want to distract the camera-man. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/parenting/a2109/good-grief-blog-071107/>