Life without Television
Three and a half years ago, and prior to that, we had television - cable, I believe. Andy, having grown up with television being on constantly for background noise and the occasional actual sitting down to watch it, also had the television on far more than I preferred. While he was good about it for the kids' sake (who were 1 1/2 and a few months around the time we moved), it still bothered me to have the TV on while the boys were awake.
When I agreed to move 1 1/2 hours away from the city where I had grown up, and away from family and friends, to a small town - which including my working and Andy's staying home with the boys - I told Andy we would not PAY for cable or satellite, even if that meant getting no television reception. Well, as it turns out, we live in a bit of a gully and cannot put an antenna up because we're renting. SO that means no reception! We bought a used entertainment center just so that we have doors covering our television set. We can watch movies but otherwise have little other contact with the TV. And recently, after noticing that the boys were watching at times three movies a day (albeit some only 30 min long), I made a new rule that no movies can be watched, outside of "quiet time," unless it's raining or we can't go outside for another reason.
Do I miss TV? What do you think? If you answered no, you are right. I'll add another word to that. NO WAY!!! In fact, sometimes - no, more than sometimes - I wish we would just get rid of the whole black box! But Andy and I do enjoy watching movies together, and Andy likes being able to stream history documentaries from Netflix. So as soon as we would chuck that thing out the window, we'd be running out trying to figure out how to put it back together! It's a love-hate relationship. No, it's a tolerate-like-hate relationship; it's complicated. At least sites like imdb.com make it tolerable, since we can find out if movies are inappropriate, and we have mutually agreed not to rent inappropriate or significantly non-family friendly movies, even for the two of us.
Some of the best things about not having television:
1. No commercials. The boys don't learn about all these products and toys and are not begging for this or that. Toy, fast food, cereal (etc) companies are not allowed to suck my sons into their world.
2. Much fewer inappropriate images being flashed in this home. If there is anything I can't stand, it's women being shown with little on and allowed to be viewed in that way; where is the respect? There's enough of that around us everywhere we look that if I can limit how much my boys and my husband - and myself - are exposed to that, I will.
3. Fewer flashing images for the boys in general. This is part of the reason I would get rid of the TV completely if I could, because they still get too many flashing images through their movies. As if the world doesn't move fast enough already.
4. More time for play, for make-believe and imagination. More opportunity for quality family time.
5. Less influence from the media and their and Hollywood's warped view of reality. Where do they get this stuff?
6. Less sitting around doing nothing, wasting time. Speaking of which, I was going to get out for a bike ride about half an hour ago...
Have a great day!
When I agreed to move 1 1/2 hours away from the city where I had grown up, and away from family and friends, to a small town - which including my working and Andy's staying home with the boys - I told Andy we would not PAY for cable or satellite, even if that meant getting no television reception. Well, as it turns out, we live in a bit of a gully and cannot put an antenna up because we're renting. SO that means no reception! We bought a used entertainment center just so that we have doors covering our television set. We can watch movies but otherwise have little other contact with the TV. And recently, after noticing that the boys were watching at times three movies a day (albeit some only 30 min long), I made a new rule that no movies can be watched, outside of "quiet time," unless it's raining or we can't go outside for another reason.
Do I miss TV? What do you think? If you answered no, you are right. I'll add another word to that. NO WAY!!! In fact, sometimes - no, more than sometimes - I wish we would just get rid of the whole black box! But Andy and I do enjoy watching movies together, and Andy likes being able to stream history documentaries from Netflix. So as soon as we would chuck that thing out the window, we'd be running out trying to figure out how to put it back together! It's a love-hate relationship. No, it's a tolerate-like-hate relationship; it's complicated. At least sites like imdb.com make it tolerable, since we can find out if movies are inappropriate, and we have mutually agreed not to rent inappropriate or significantly non-family friendly movies, even for the two of us.
Some of the best things about not having television:
1. No commercials. The boys don't learn about all these products and toys and are not begging for this or that. Toy, fast food, cereal (etc) companies are not allowed to suck my sons into their world.
2. Much fewer inappropriate images being flashed in this home. If there is anything I can't stand, it's women being shown with little on and allowed to be viewed in that way; where is the respect? There's enough of that around us everywhere we look that if I can limit how much my boys and my husband - and myself - are exposed to that, I will.
3. Fewer flashing images for the boys in general. This is part of the reason I would get rid of the TV completely if I could, because they still get too many flashing images through their movies. As if the world doesn't move fast enough already.
4. More time for play, for make-believe and imagination. More opportunity for quality family time.
5. Less influence from the media and their and Hollywood's warped view of reality. Where do they get this stuff?
6. Less sitting around doing nothing, wasting time. Speaking of which, I was going to get out for a bike ride about half an hour ago...
Have a great day!
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