Monday, May 02, 2011

So long HGTV, sniff...


Tis true, tis true. Back in March we made the final step in guaranteeing our children's future therapy needs by cancelling our satellite dish service. It is funny to me that people ask if it was a Jesus inspired decision. Well, yes and no. I did not spend a lot of time praying about it in the traditional sense, "Dear Lord, do you want us to upgrade to the gold channel package? Is this covered under the umbrella of Psalm 84:11?" We simply looked at what it cost us, what we got, and if we needed it.
It was soon realized that we would be saving $90 + a month, and the only thing we would be missing was the channel switch dash. The channel switch dash? What is that you ask? It is that lovely sport, wherein you are watching say, a cartoon, and all of the sudden there is an advertisement for erectile dysfunction cream. Seriously? Is this necessary? I am not even going to ask if its appropriate... at 1030 am...  on a Saturday morning...  to viewers of Batman.
And apparently, if you are in the fan base of anything on the history channel, your tampon needs are of utmost importance, as is a body wash that requires you to bathe in a forest, moan, and watch soap suds slide off your own buttocks.
There were other reasons we cancelled the satellite, aka child lazifier. Yes, another reason was the comatose stare and dazed, glassy eyed looks that came over my children, their lack of gumption to get up and throw a tissue in the trash lest they miss another hydroxi-cut commercial, and their inability to play. Inability to play? Really? Yes. Really.
When all your interaction with your siblings involves staring and sitting, you lose the ability to converse, cooperate, and even play. Am I really saying that too much TV made my children unable to play? Yes. Yes I am. I think it was stealing their imagination one couch potato day at a time.  Whenever it was turned off we were met with confused looks, and questions of "What do we do now? " I realized we needed to cut the head of the beast right off when we pointed them to the mudroom toy shelves and they asked, 

"What are these called again? " TOYS. 
"What do we with them? "  PLAY.  
"Is there a show about this we could watch first to see how its done, this 'play' thing? "  WHAT?!!?

Yes, I exaggerate a bit, but we really felt like we were letting the TV take over our time and our kid's little minds too much. Note, that operative word there... WE. As in, Micah and myself. We allowed the habit to start, and for own selves, we needed to just get rid of it. It was too easy to find something to watch on HGTV, and hello??? How can I not watch Tabitha's Salon Takeover? It is practically like continuing ed for me. Right? Eh, right???
So, yes...
*guilty of "not having time to get the laundry done" because I was too busy watching Kat Von Dee tat people.
*guilty of not being able to go to bed because I had to see what the chefs would do with that octopus and caramel in the dessert round on Chopped.
*guilty of yelling angry comments at parents on Toddlers and Tiaras...  you get the picture.


The boys and ME, we had issues.

We did keep netflix instant streaming, and after over a week of a total no electronics of any kind fast, we loaded up some Super Mario Brothers (yes, the one from the 80s. it makes my heart happy. we are indeed "hooked on the brothers") Pink Panther, and Diego, we are good to go. We now give the kiddos 30-45 min a day of TV or wii or ipod time. Yep, they gotta choose between the three. We will allow a bit more on a rainy Saturday or when a babysitter is here. If you can manage the TV better, please understand, I am not judging you. I salute you. I am too weak... too house hunting, sister wives, and Lifetime made for TV movie weak.

It is amazing to watch things like legos, puzzles, pillow forts, and drawing happening again in our home. I mean, its not perfect, these are three boys. They wrestle over the crayons, and a fist fight can escalate over a game of rummy, but its still better. A lot better. 

As for me, I am okay... until football season.

6 comments:

  1. I think this is awesome. We have not had "real TV" since Jake was maybe 2 or 3. It's been a while. And everything you said in your post about not playing and no imagination is all true! It was the same here. We only have a TV/DVD combo and the only thing we watch is DVD's and ONLY after dinner and baths and all the chores have been done. So that leaves about an hour on a good day! I will admit that I (ME ONLY) have an addiction to Hulu. I catch up on some TV shows there but I've even cut way back on that. I'll watch in the morning before the kids get up usually. Anyway, I think you made a great choice. It works well for us. Heck, my kids even play board games now!

    ReplyDelete
  2. so envious of this jude! i can def. give up tv really easily (and don't watch much usually) but getting jeff on board would be a bit of a battle.

    love that pic of the 'read instead' might have to give that a try and see if the point is made at least for a day or two :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. We are in the same boat. Our TV is our little 19 inch computer monitor. Most of the time Jonas gets to watch one show or less a day on a little portable dvd player. No commercials, yea! When he gets to watch on the computer he calls it the "big screen" ha!

    Between Hulu and Netfllix we have more than enough junk to watch. Although HGTV I do miss. They play it at the doctor's office while I'm waiting. I never mind when Ryan is late picking me up and they are late calling me back for my appt. : )

    ReplyDelete
  4. We got rid of our tv a few months ago and have never regretted it. Good for you. =)

    ReplyDelete
  5. You'll be okay! :) We had no cable till this past year. I blame it on PA. LOL! HAHAHAHA...jersey shore...or Teen Mom. Who can NOT watch Teen Mom, sigh...okay, maybe we need to ditch cable again...or atleast block MTV. LOL

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sooo envious here too...funny thing is I just did a post but scheduled it for another day about this same topic...(i'm telling you now, less you think i'm crazy and didn't just read it somewhere) I just wish my husband would go for it, but alas he wont!!!

    ReplyDelete