s/o No television for 7 days

[gingersmom]

I have threatened many times to disconnect cable but have never done it. We have gone 1-2 days with no television but that is it.

 

I picked my daughter up from sleep away camp (she was gone for a month) and we spent several extra days away before coming home.

 

Late at night, while I was sleepless and they were sleeping I was reading in one of the forums about someone who disconnected their cable television. And all these other people chimed in that they did it years ago.

 

Major guilt trip.

 

I felt like serious mommy guilt. I'm ruining my children by letting them sit mindlessly in front of the tv. And then I thought about how much time I waste sitting there blankly staring at a screen.

 

So I announced on the way home we were going 7 days no television. Lots of moaning and groaning. Plus I think no one believed me.

 

So far........

 

My son has spent the past 4 1/2 hours browsing through books.

My daughter rode her bike, gave herself a pedicure and actually organized her school supplies/books.

I did 7 loads of laundry, needlepoint and looked through 2 new cookbooks coming up with several new recipes to try this week.

 

I think we are off to a great start!!!

[aggieamy]

Good job. I really want to do this but I'm not the TV watcher of the family. We already don't have cable (too frugal) but the kids like to watch a few cartoons on DVD occasionally. I was reading The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease and he mentioned that their family doesn't have allow TV on school nights. I'm thinking I'm might implement this in our home and then limit TV to weekends only. Maybe I'll start with a TV free week too to kick it off.

[mommylawyer]

That's a GREAT start! Maybe, if no one notices (yeah, right), you can keep it up beyond the 7 days... or maybe just have TV for one night a week. Just a thought. CONGRATULATIONS!

 

BTW, I'm one of those who chimed in on the other thread. DH and I gave it up because, at the time, we were both working full-time and had our first child, who was 5 months old. We realized we were coming home from work and vegging out in front of the TV instead of watching the best entertainment we could hope for - our new baby.

 

What's funny now is seeing how my children react when they are in the presence of a TV that is on (when we're at grandma's house, on vacation, etc.). If it's something they are watching, but need to got potty or eat, they ask for someone to push pause or stop.

[HSMom2One]

I would give anything in the world to be able to pull the plug on our tv set. I HATE the influence it has on my family! The problem is that my dh will hear nothing of it. He watches it to relax every night, and sits mindlessly in front of it until bedtime.

 

The best that I can do is limit the amount of screen time dd has (computer and tv) and keep my mouth zipped when it comes to other members of my family, which includes my dm (age 79 who lives with us).

 

Blessings,

Lucinda

[Tree House Academy]

We just had to take the leap. Cold turkey. Once we did, there was no choice. LOL We get a lot of netflix movies and ones from the library. Plus we have a LOT of our own. I may not know what is happening on the 10 O'clock news (because I live in the middle of nowhere and the digital box doesn't work AT.ALL. here) but I sure have remembered why I love Chevy Chase. Ahh...they just don't make 'em like Fletch anymore. ;)

 

Now...missing American Idol for the first time in the whole, what 8 YEARS it has been on...now that SUCKED.

[Corraleno]

We still have satellite, but my rule is no live TV. Every Sunday night I sit down with the remote and scan through the next week's schedule for the History, Discovery, Biography, Nat Geo and Science channels, and set the DVR to record anything that looks good. Then when we want to watch something, we pick something that's been recorded. That way there's always something worthwhile to watch, and we don't have to suffer through the commercials. We also watch Teaching Company videos and Netflix documentaries.

 

Computer games and kiddie DVDs are restricted to weekends after 1:00 PM ~ and I usually arrange playdates or trips to the park/museum/zoo/etc on weekend afternoons. :)

 

Jackie

[Amber in AUS]

I too waste many valuable hours mindlessly infront of the TV. I have a love hate relationship with it. We were TV free for about 4 months once because our TV blew up and i LOVED it, but DH hated it. He would go over BIL's house to watch stuff he just couldn't possibly miss, grr!

 

I wish we didn't have one. We spend days without TV and then days with. We have all been sick these last few days and just sat infront of the TV in our PJ's. It was welcome respite but the more the kids get, the more they want.

 

Well done to you!!

[gingersmom]

The DVR is recording shows and it is driving my children not knowing what is being recorded.

 

The funny thing is that everything my son records is educational. So when school starts up in a 1 1/2 weeks I will take a look and let him pick one show to watch.

 

DVD's are just as toxic as the television in my house. My son will hit rewind and watch parts over and over. Not to mention watching the same movie over and over.

 

We are in Day 2 and so far so good. They actually have not complained once. I think they have heard me threaten me so many times they are actually not that shocked.

 

The plan on Sunday is to have family movie night complete with popcorn, candy, etc.

[Tutor]

Happy for you! We have been broadcast free for a few years and cable free for about 10 (except for one year we don't like to talk about :001_smile: ). It is so nice. My dh and I *love* movies, so we still watch movies and have a Netflix subscription, but we have so much more discipline over it now.

 

Looking froward to hearing how your experiment turns out!

[elfgivas]

congratulations! i chimed in on the other thread, too. i hope that it continues as its started off!!! i actually don't know anyone who has done it who didn't prefer life that way!

 

have fun! (that many loads of laundry is enough for one day ; )

ann

[NavyWifeandMommy]

I just wanted to chime in and say that even though we don't have cable right now, I wished we had it on really hot days or in the winter. We live in housing and hubby don't want to pay the price for cable but we cannot get satilite because housing won't let them run new wires in the houses. I am counting the days until we move. We are all missig our favorite shows but right now not having it we do get more reading and work done around the house. I could just do more trips to the grandparents. t

[runamuk]

Our kids were tv zombies at the beginning of summer. I would turn it on and leave it on while I prepared for a 3 week vacation (driving half way across the country and visiting several sets of relatives and friends along the way) and for our closing and move one week after returning from vacation.

 

Once we moved, we were without tv for nearly two weeks while waiting for the cable company to come out and hook us up. I was fine with not having cable, but mindless television is my husband's way to unwind. The kids quickly got used to not having the box on and had a blast playing upstairs, reading and playing outside. Even after the tv was hooked up, I didn't turn it on - and they didn't realize it was working until two weeks later.

 

We've kept it off during the day, except for a few things on the Discovery channel, and the few movies they watch come from Netflix. They don't ask to turn it on and they now discuss the books they read and the games they play instead of the things Spongebob and Patrick say. I'm so much happier (and they are, too) without it.

[angela in ohio]

I had been asking dh if we could go TV free. Then a few years ago, he agreed. For Valentine's Day, he and ds ripped apart the entertainment center with a sledge hammer. It was so romantic! :001_wub:

 

We put the TV in our bedroom, and he and I rent a movie or two a week in the evening after the kiddos go to bed. Dc watch about a movie every other week (we let them watch one when dh and I go out on a date.)

 

We were just wondering the other day how we got anything done with the TV. We used to sit in front of it for several hours a day.

[BikeBookBread]

Great job! :party::grouphug::party:

 

DH and I were both raised in TV all-the-time homes...my parents still eat dinner with the TV on. If we can do it, you can do it. I KNOW you can do it.

 

We had our first totally TV-free night last night. We listened to a podcast from The White Horse Inn, listened to some music, I crocheted and then we went to bed at a decent hour. It was great!

[jlovebaker]

I agree with the poster about no live tv except for the occasional Nationals game (yeah they're the loser baseball team for DC). We live on Tivo and Netflix mostly. Lots of nites spent doing our read alouds from Sonlight or playing games (I don't but DH and kids do!). Also, my kids are sports fanatics so lots of baseball and basketball nights for us - either practice, games or off to the park with DH (the latter is my favorite because then I get to watch TV!