Well I did it! I disconnected the cable...

[Surfside Academy]

I'm tired of fighting with my son to get him to read so I cancelled our Directv, at least for the summer! Now, I'm in a slight panic because I don't know how 3 boys are going to keep themselves entertained (without driving me absolutely crazy!) I told my oldest that I'll actually pay him $2 for every books he reads this summer!

 

I hope this experiment works. I have friends who haven't had tv for a few years but yet their boys are totally addicted to their Nintendo's and WII. For my sanity, I didn't keep the cable on in my bedroom :D.

[LunaLee]

Good for you! I would LOVE to do the same thing (especially now that Battlestar Galactica is over) except my biggest kid, you know the one who makes the money, would probably divorce me. :001_smile:

[Tracey in TX]

We went w/o tv for a year. The first several weeks were truly awful. It's a mental adjustment. Supposedly it takes 21 days to develop a habit. The flipside is it takes approximately 21 days to UNdo a habit! That's about the length of our tv withdraw 'syndrome'. I kindly suggest offering options outside the realm of tv when they fuss about being bored. It really is a major adjustment, so chores might not be the best way to handle this initially. (After initial grieving period is over, it's fair game again! LOL)

Good for you! I've been mulling the idea over in my head to ditch it again--but hiding the Wii and PS3 gaming systems as well. Have to discuss with DH before making that drastic a move, though.

 

You're my new inspiration :)

[Starr]

We didn't connect the cable when we moved. I thought we might as well save the money for the summer. After 3 -6 months you only rarely miss it. We do limit the computer time. In the summer they use it very little. We try to stick to the occasional movie. It's amazing what they find to do. Have outside toys, building , science projects,books and games around. It'll be loud but fun. (I also forbid the words "I'm bored". :))

[Rhonda in TX]

We cut off our Dish Network shortly before last summer. It was rough at times, but we survived. :) We got DirectTV for Christmas this year and I can't decide if that was a good idea or not.

[langfam]

Yeah! Good luck. We had cable once years ago for 3 months and found there was nothing to watch except PBS, so we went antenna. We use Netflix now for special movies and that's plenty!

[Mom2GirlsTX]

three years ago (Direct TV) and it was almost 2 months before withdrawal phase was over. I am really glad we did it though, the TV time is limited (PBS shows are about it) and it has really forced the girls to get more creative in entertaining themselves. They enjoy art, chess, reading, swimming, table tennis, foosball and cards for fun things to keep busy. I'm not going to say it is easy, but I think it is worth it, well at least for us it was.

[Jen500]

I agree w/the previous posters. We don't have cable tv or game systems--in a past home we had cable and it was such a time-waster for our family, and a battle. I'd get a few new things for your kids. What are their interests? My boys love to build so we have wood, clay, model kits, lego, knex, snap circuits, erector set, etc. If there are certain times of the day your kids really gravitate to the tv you can plan something fun during those times. Might help to get through that '21 days' thing. Good luck!

[Ellyndria]

Sometimes I wonder how people do this. I mean, *I* rarely watch any tv anymore, so I could go without it just fine normally. But DH? We have to have Directv so he can buy his baseball and football packages, plus he watches a bunch of other random sports stuff. I mean, I'd be happy if we could just have a basic cable package, and get rid of all these extra packages, it just costs too much! But no, we don't live in an area that would get all the games that his teams play, so he has to have all these sports packages, cause the world would end if he couldn't see every game they play.

 

Ok, sorry, rant off, but I seriously do wonder how you get your DHs to agree to this sort of thing... my DS is only 3 so that's not a problem, just DH...

[Pata]

Congratulations! We tried this and were able to keep the cable off, but we have an antenna now, I need the news at least!

[melissel]

Ugh, I totally fantasize about this. My question for those of you who have cut off the TV, though, is this: What did you do about the movies/videos you already own? My DDs have a collection of maybe 40 videos (Barbie movies, Milo and Otis, Wiggles, Backyardigans, etc.), largely thanks to hand-me-downs and my mom (love the woman, but :glare:). If we were to get rid of cable, we'd still have the same arguments over the videos. How do you handle that? Or are we the only weirdos who've developed such a collection?

 

Surfside, great job, by the way! What a difficult step to take :thumbup: I hope it's easier than you think it will be.

[TracyR]

I shut off our cable for the same reason . I was tired of competing with Cartoon Network .

We still have our DVD player and they can watch a movie if they ask me and all work is completed. We read lots of books , board games , Lincoln Logs , for the summer time they go to the churches and do VBS , cheerleading camp , swimming , going outside to play , ride bikes , weeding our gardens . Lapbooking is fun for us , the summer library programs . We do have a gameboy but they only play with it at night in their bed sometimes . I do have to clamp down on the computer video games which won't be a problem for us soon as we will be moving to an area with no DSL ,,, he , he , well for them not me :<(

[GSMP]

Congratulations on cutting off the TV. We have been TV free ie cable antennae, dish since 2002.

 

It was harder on me then the kids. I missed my HGTV. Two of them were in school at the time and the youngest and I found lots of things to do. It was the year before he started school. It was great for me.

 

As to the question about the movies. We didn't get rid of any of our movies. We assigned a movie night for the whole family. Each child was assigned a day of the week (1 day only) that they got to pick a movie to watch. Only if other things were done though.

 

We use the TV as an output device only for the dvd/video player. Movies once in a while and for their math, Spanish and history.

 

News I watch online. I will once in awhile watch a show on line. Several are online now.....I like NCIS....:D

 

Other than that....you muddle through. Games are a big thing, books, coloring, art projects, outside stuff. We never allowed them to watch that much anyway so it didn't really make that much of a difference for them. We don't have any of the game stations. My husband is computer guru and has over 5000 MAME games (original arcade games) that are set up on three work stations down stairs. They are limited to those also.

 

We have 80 gallons of legos....I am still waiting for someone to take me up on the challenge of using every single lego. We bought 40 gallons at a yard sale for $20.

 

They do like to sit and watch TV when they go visit my sister's but they are glued to the Discovery channel, History Channel and Animal Planet.

 

Good luck.....I hope you are able to survive the kids.....:001_smile: That is the challenge.

 

My husband tells the kids if they ever say they are bored he gives them perspective. He makes them field day....they will never tell you they are bored.

[frogpond1]

adjusting to summer here anyway without the normal school schedules. Mine were fit to be tied and grumpy etc., but now are getting into the feel of summer time. So, when yours act bored it is a great thing. They need to go through that bored stage and get into a more creative stage where entertainment isn't being spoon fed to them. We have a badmitton court up, swingset, little above ground pool and they will go out and have fun. My boys love the dirt pile too and all the crazy things they build in it. If you hold tight through the rough time you won't have any regrets. An occasional movie and 20 minutes a day of computer time works well here.

[kellycbr]

It is probably scary cutting it off now that the kids are used to having TV. My DH and I neither had TV before we were married, and now, 9 yrs later we still don't have one, so the kids are used to it. What do we do? Well, the computer probably eats up some of that time for me, but the kids are busy with their legos, playmobil, books, bikes, scooters, dirt pile, sandbox, lots of art, especially drawing. Oh, and playing piano, not just practicing, but making up new songs(sometimes its very loud!). However, we do use Netflix, and I love it. Lots of David Attenborough, BBC, and other nature documentories. I'd like to say we only use it once a week, and thats probably true in the summer. The rest of the year, it comes on at 4pm if necessary, so that Mum can make dinner without the kids needing constant mediation because they're so tired. :D I really don't know how people have a TV. I'd love to watch HGTV, but I would never get anything done! When we visit family, we love sitting and watching all the shows and commercials. Then, we realize once again it felt like we'd eaten a ton of junk food, and feel a bit sick. It was just a huge waste of time, and we won't try it again till next year. Go enjoy life experiencing it together. I'm really happy for you and your family.:thumbup:

[eve]

You won't regret it, you may even want to put the tv away all together. We have been a year with out a TV and it has been the best thing for me and the kids. DH didn't watch much, but at night, I would waste hours and rarely was there anything helpful on, and I was always having to answer questions about if they could watch a movie or not. So really more for my own discipline we decided to sell our tv in our yard sale. It has been a year and my kids now play better together and alone than they did before. I was nervous about lsing my hour of sesame street for the younger ones, but it has really been much better. I have to be a little more creative and intentional with my kids, but that's not really a bad thing. I totally agree with the other post about a dirt pile - boys and girls imaginations can really get a work out with dirt. It is weird at first, but totally worth it.

[nmoira]

Congrats. I can honestly say it was one of the best decisions DH and I ever made. We disconnected a couple years before having children, and I'm proud to say you can count the kids' cumulative exposure to commercials in minutes.

 

We do have Netflix, and have no desire to go totally TV free. But broadcast TV/cable is out of our lives completely.

[Mom to Aly]

We did this 4 years ago, and it was the best thing we ever did! We read a ton now! My daughter was 5 when we cut it off, so it was probably easier for her than an older kid, and I have never allowed her to get addicted to a game system (she just got her first this year, and she has very limited time on it), but her fave thing is reading, and she is 9 with a college reading level! We will join Netflix for a month or two every 6 or 8 months, and I find it takes so long to get the movies (between sending them back and waiting for a new one) it is fine. We get some educational ones, some she chooses, and we actually have them sometimes and don't watch them for a few days because we both have things we want to read.

 

I had no prob giving up t.v., and, when we do go away and stay in a hotel, I always think there will be something I'd like to watch, but find that is not at all the case! I really don't miss it at all!

[Nestof3]

but I seriously do wonder how you get your DHs to agree to this sort of thing.

 

It was actually my husband's idea because he didn't like sifting through all the junk just to find something decent, and then when he found something decent, he was always turning the TV off during commercials. He just decided he really wouldn't miss anything afterall. He said there was just too much trash that didn't need to come into our house. He watches the world series each year (now that will be at my Dad's with his huge screen TV) and that is it.

 

He likes his computer -- he watches old music band videos and also preaching/teaching. We watch a movie now and then together as well.

[Nestof3]

when we do go away and stay in a hotel, I always think there will be something I'd like to watch, but find that is not at all the case!

 

I know what you mean. My husband just lies back, hands me the remote control and says, "Find something decent." I scroll and scroll and scroll. Once I found a 3-way s_x show -- passed on that one. We rented a cottage once and watched Jeopardy and a conservative talk show which was fun. Our oldest loves the history and military channel, so sometimes he'll go to my parents to watch a show that sounds great, but it annoys me because they advertise some pretty sleazy shows even on that channel. ugh

[Anne/Ankara]

We've never had cable, just a regular TV, which we hardly ever watch-- occasional nightly news and 60 Minutes and such. Also, my ds age 13 is interested in pro-football, so we watch some games in the fall (go Steelers!). But other than that, we use it for DVD's from the library. You certainly can get enough entertainment from there! At least that's true for us. We just watched Forest Gump, and Hoosiers, so that was fun.

 

But usually after dinner we go outside, or play board games, and then retire early enough (8pm) to get in some quality reading time each evening. Works for us!

[kristavws]

We don't have cable/dish either. We had it once for a couple of months, but realized that all we watched was PBS anyway, so we got rid of it. We do rent a lot of DVDs. My boys have Nintendo DSs, but they are only allowed to use them in the car if we go on a trip that requires us to be in the car for greater than 1-hour. What can I say I'm a "meanie." We figure the kids have tons of books, building type toys, other toys, games, puzzles, and the great outdoors. If they decide they are "bored," there are always some chores that they can help out with around here :D

 

Krista

[Alice]

Ugh, I totally fantasize about this. My question for those of you who have cut off the TV, though, is this: What did you do about the movies/videos you already own? My DDs have a collection of maybe 40 videos (Barbie movies, Milo and Otis, Wiggles, Backyardigans, etc.), largely thanks to hand-me-downs and my mom (love the woman, but :glare:). If we were to get rid of cable, we'd still have the same arguments over the videos. How do you handle that? Or are we the only weirdos who've developed such a collection?

 

Surfside, great job, by the way! What a difficult step to take :thumbup: I hope it's easier than you think it will be.

 

We haven't had TV for the past 4 years. We do have videos that we watch either on the computer or on a TV (we just have no reception so can't watch shows). We have a fair amount of videos also. I just limit ds to at the most 1 a day, that isn't more than an hour. Typically right now he watches as I am putting the toddler down for a nap. At the most he can watch an hour, but often it's 20-30 min depending on the video. On days when we're out at naptime, he doesn't usually watch one.

 

We don't have any video game systems. He does know a few kid's game websites (pbskids, a winnie-the-pooh site, starfall, etc). I let him do that sometimes on the computer but try to keep the total screen time to a max of 1hour.

 

One thing I've found is that it works best for us not to be too legalistic about it. Meaning that some days it might be more like 90 min (a video plus some computer games). Some days it's none. Because he's little he's used to not being allowed to do it much so it's pretty easy to say no. Also, since it's usually at a specific time of day he really doesn't expect it other times. (He still asks...but knows the answer will be no.)

 

I only have one so don't hve to worry about the arguments...but when I was a kid my Mom had the same one hour rule. I was an only child but she babysat my best friend every day after school. We solved it by each picking one show (30 min each) for a total of one hour. I imagine I'll do something similar when my toddler is big enough to have an opinion.

 

Also, I try and get videos out from the library that go along with what we're studying that week in FIAR. So we do a lot of nature videos and science videos. Most are 30 min and he'll watch one of those and then he's done for the day. I'm not kidding myself that it's "school" but I feel a little better about it than Elmo (which we have plenty of :)).