Thursday, June 21, 2012

Goodbye Picture Tube!

Monday, I finally had enough! I have been discussing with the Mr. for a while about getting rid of the TV. I said last week that I wanted to just cut the cord on the thing! The only reason why I had decided not to were for my own selfish reasons. I only allow my kids about 2 hours of viewing time per week but I still think that's to much for any of us. I determined this after the 2 year old started singing commercials. I don't want my kids to be walking advertisements! I don't want them growing up and identifying themselves with  various brand names and cartoon characters. I want them to have their own minds! I want them to develop their own opinions about the world and to aware of the things that really matter. But I had this fearful thought lingering in the back of my head....."What will I do after the children are asleep?" Collapse on the couch and do what? What am I to do with the children when I become ill and need a break? The more I see how deeply impacted these children are by the repetitive nature of these advertisements and adds the more I worry about their future of becoming conscious consumers. I
n the midst of all this, I'm staying up until the wee morning hours to watch reruns of ridiculous shows about dysfunctional families. Waking up exhausted and feeling like another unproductive day would go by because I just didn't have the energy to be Mama, I decided I'd had ENOUGH! Maybe it was sleep deprivation? Maybe temporary insanity! I went and got my favorite pair of craft scissors and I cut the cord on the TV, threw the plug into the trash and took a great sigh of relief! So far so good. Not a complaint to be heard.(yet) Is this extreme? Maybe so. But maybe, just maybe, it will be the best thing to happen to our family! Do I think it will benefit all of us? 100%! I've gotten quite a bit of judgement the past few days for this but that's okay. I can't see a ton of people going to cut their cords on their television sets because of this post, but maybe other families out there have decided to tune out of television. What has it done for your family? How has it benefited you?

3 comments:

  1. Good for you!! I can't say we're completely tv free but we don't have cable and haven't for two years now and LOVE it!! I do let the kids pick out a library movie for the week but even that I want to cut back on even more, especially during these summer months when they should be outside enjoying LIFE!!.

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  2. I loved tv without cable too. I think I'm having withdrawls lol :)

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  3. We don't have TV but we do have Netflix streaming on the computer. No commercials at least but Lola still watches it too much, I think. I could do without that too, to be honest, I only watch when my husband turns it on. I do miss the news and the occasional British TV show. But not enough to do something about it.

    Hanneke

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