We proposed the idea of a TV-free home to our children a few weeks back and discussed a reward being handed out at the end of a year. We decided that September 1st would be our day to begin. The kids were all in agreement.
Our home has been so peaceful since. I was expecting major backlash and discomfort as they adjusted to it, but there has not been one moment of anxiety yet.
They've been playing outside a lot more and enjoying each others' company.
It will be interesting to see what happens when the rainy season begins and as school vacations come to pass. As for now, we are so busy with the school adjustment and the soccer schedules that I don't think anyone really has much time to think about entertainment. The Wii is still an option as long as they have permission (we have parental controls on the TV) and movies can be watched on weekend nights as a family as long as all work is done.
One of the greatest things I have seen is how much the kids want to be together as a family. They all want to go to each others' practices and games. No one asks, "Can I just stay home?" When the rest of us are running out the door. I LOVE it!!!
This is something I've wanted to do for a long time. I haven't been much of a TV watcher since I was probably in elementary or middle school, and I've resented what it's been doing to the relationships between my family members. I hope this good trend continues.
5 comments:
I'm so envious of this. This would not go over very well in my house. Great idea and I'm sure it can only enhance those family relationships.
We haven't had actual television signal in our home for - *counting* - nine years or so, since the place we rented before we moved here. It was so remote that cable wasn't an option, and installing satellite was a breach of our rental contract, so we just had to lump it. We've never turned back. It's only inconvenient during General Conference, and the Olympics. We have deep fuzzy snow on the screen for the first (but internet is helping more every six months), and totally have missed every Olympics for the last nine years, even the Utah Olympics.
But it's worth it for the peace the rest of the time. :) (Is it freaky, these commonalities we're discovering?)
I'm really interested to hear how this turns out for you. I remember when I was a kid and Portland would have ice storms in the winter, sometimes we'd lose power for several days. My family would play board games or read together or other games we made up, but the house did seem a lot more peaceful. As soon as the power came back on, and the TV, the bickering and stuff came back too.
Now, to be fair, it's not necessarily the TV's fault. It could also have been the effect of going through some adversity (even a minor one like this) together, the interruption of the normal routine, etc., that changed our demeanor.
Actually, we don't have TV per se either, and haven't for many, many years (since the neighbors cut through our cable when installing a sign, and we realized it was a couple of weeks before we noticed the outage... and never hooked it back up again). We do, however, have the TV on quite a lot, between the PlayStation and watching DVDs. We'll watch an occasional show on the internet as well (typically less than one a week). Sounds like you're allowing some of that within limits... so maybe we're not as far from that situation as I thought.
I am sooooo tempted! I love ths idea and I think it's so smart to let them do movies on the weekend. Then they still get a taste, but it doesn't become an every day of the week distraction. SMART! Play time outside and play time with siblings is priceless and will be so much more beneficial to your kids than sitting in front of the tube. I might have to copy you on this.
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