I’m not sure if I blgged about it, or if I just thought about blogging about it….there are a lot of thoughts begging to be blogged about, but sometimes the time or energy is just not there…but we got rid of our cable back in June.
Money was tight – but that wasn’t the deciding factor. I was really sick of the kids parking their butts in front of the TV at EVERY POSSIBLE SECOND. It drove me nuts….it started from the moment they woke up and lasted until the minute they went to bed.
It’s not that they were watching TV all that time, but that they tried to….it was the default. Oh look, were not doing anything….let’s watch TV. Oh, we should be getting ready for school…..let’s watch TV. Oh, we just came home from school….let’s watch TV. Oh, we should be doing homework…let’s watch TV. Do you see a pattern?
I was CONSTANTLY telling them to turn it off and to get focused on the task at hand, or else to just “Go and play!” But then, of course, I hear the whole “We’re bored! We don’t have anything to do! We don’t know what to do!”
So I’d list off a whole ton of stuff, which they’d immediately reject and we’d be rihgt back where we started from.
So, we cut our cable…..end of issue!
It’s been wonderful! I mean, it was summer,and so it’s not like there were really awesome shows that we were missing, and the kids learned how to entertain themselves again, and when they really wanted, they’d watch a DVD that we owned – it was all good.
When we originally cut our cable, we actually didn’t completely cut it off….we just suspended the service. We decided that to suspend it for free for a time, was better than disconnecting and then having to pay a reconnection charge when we connected it again in October just before HOCKEY SEASON! (I wonder what the season is going to be like for the Canucks this year! It should be interesting)
So, we had every intention of reconnecting again. BUT,………now it’s September, and all my favorite TV shows are starting back up, and I really REALLY want to get the cable connected. Like REALLY REALLY! That got me thinking and wondering about my own “issues” with the TV.
It’s not that I’m sitting down in the evenings, and missing staring at the TV for an hour while I just sit on the couch and do nothing.
I have things to do. My time is full. There are things that I could do in front of the TV…like knitting or crochetting, or beading or any other number of crafts, but I can do things things just as well, if not better without the TV being on.
I am just realizing how much I “WANT” to sit in front of the TV and let it numb me into a oblivious vegetative state. It’s an escape, and a pretty effective one. We’ve been sorting through some stuff ined our life, and I wonder if the “desire for escape” has anything to do with me wanting to reconnect the cable……hmmmmm, that was a lightbulb moment for me – just in case you’re wondering….my own personal epiphany!
I could….I could call and get it hooked up today, but I don’t know that I want to. I mean, I do! A huge part of me wants to watch America’s Next Top Model, and Bones, and House, and the last season of ER and Surivor, and Private Practice and Grey’s Anatomy, and whatever else I could get hook into, but a large part of me has enjoyed all the time and energy over the past 2 and a bit months, that has not been sucked into the black box in my front room.
I’ve even been contemplating not getting it turned on in October. I mean, just thinking it through, we don’t HAVE to watch the hockey games. We could listen to them on the radio or even the Internet, or…..imagine this…..we could “BUILD RELATIONSHIP” and go and watch a game at someone else’s house or even go out to the pub and watch them there…..there are options…I guess it’s just a matter of what’s important to us.
I’m really liking that the kids aren’t tied to the “tube” and I’m not sure that I want to be either….
Hmmmm, what to do? What to do?
What would you do? I’m just wondering?
Wow….am going through the exact same thing right now. Actually I cut off our cable in September 2007…so we have gone one whole year without it…and to tell you the truth, I can count on one hand the times that I actually truly missed it. I finally decided to get it back (they are actually coming today to hook it back up), but I did basically for the hockey games that my son missed last year. I am pretty sure that I will cut it off again come spring though….I actually enjoyed my time away from the boob tube:)
since july when we moved into our new place I’ve had cable again…..It had been almost 3 years without it (except for the rabbit ears with the tin foil extensions off of the anntena to try and get better reception just to catch a moment or two of adult converstaion during the day other than the sounds of babies and or todlers ;)) It was actually a bit of a shock to our sences to have cable back….part of me is reveling in network bliss…the other part of me just doesn’t think that it’s worth it, what with all the junk that gets into my house though the tv. I undersatnd your quandry. while we’re here at least, good ‘ol cable will continue to grace us with her presence (my bro in law down stairs pays….so hey, I’m not complaining)
So, you are more than welcome to come watch hockey here 🙂
When we tried to go with less boob tube and cut our cable we found that we watched even more movies and the whole “experiment” was null and void…we failed miserably. Problem is I have a hubby who learned to relax one way…watching TV and unfortunately a few of our kids seem REALLY addicted……and yes me too, I don’t have too many but I have a few shows that I really enjoy watching. I would love to be able to do a better balance of it.
and you know you are more than welcome to come over here anytime…in fact we could do a Wed night dinner and top model night with the girls and maybe the guys could take JJ for a nature walk or hang out or something 🙂
My kids have to earn their TV time. Certain chores bring certain amounts (minutes) of TV, certain behaviours deduct, etc. I find that they get along better when they watch less TV, there’s less fighting and less whining.
I’d love to cut the cable, it would be easier, but we share our cable with my father in law — who does nothing much outside of watching TV.