For the past three years, we have not had any television reception. It was a very tough call to make for our then-8-, 5-, and 1-year-old, but it was one of the best decisions we've ever made as parents.
It's not that we're anti-TV. We're anti-JUNK TV. And we were getting concerned about the amount of time all of us, not just the kids, spent in front of the old boob tube. On Saturday mornings, our kids would watch an alarming three hours of TV before we even got up! And the stuff they were watching wasn't the harmless Tom & Jerry of yore. Add in the incessant marketing, and it was enough to make us question conventional wisdom.
So the TV got unplugged. We still watched videos -- quite a few of them, honestly -- but there was a definite beginning and end, and no commercials, and we knew what they were watching because we'd seen the same shows over and over and (in the case of Peter Pan and certain episodes of Barney) over again. It felt safe, and it felt good.
We immediately noticed that the kids started playing together more -- fun games, too! Building forts, creating huge domino chains, hosting early morning Monopoly marathons, and more. Sure, we had entered a new zone -- we felt out of it when we had no idea what "Lost" was, had never seen a single episode of "American Idol," and didn't know who won the Academy Awards. But overall, the good outweighed the bad.
Now, as we get settled in our new home, we have a tough dilemma. We DO have cable reception for the first time in over 1000 days -- it came in a bundle as part of our Internet access and phone service. The kids are obsessed once again with junk TV (Total Drama Island has to be the dumbest show I've ever seen!). And we've decided once again to pull the plug. At the end of this week, the TV is getting unhooked from the cable box. The kids are not happy, but the honest truth is, we believe they will miss more by watching TV than they will by NOT watching TV.
Your Assignment: I'll be turning this blog entry into a scrapbook page. Make your own page about a tough decision you've made, or alternately about your relationship with TV. What shows do you and your family like to watch? How much TV do you watch in a typical week? Do you watch for fun, entertainment, news?