Why we don't "do" TV

Dazey Mae left a comment asking about why we don't do TV here, and so I thought I'd bore you all with the story. Especially since I don't have any inspirational summer break photos for you today. :)

There is no deep, dark reason that we don't do TV. We didn't have one when we got married, then found that we were fine without it. (although it was hilarious how people would act like we didn't have running water or something when they found out!) Then we got a TV for a Christmas gift about 2 years later and we watched it faithfully for probably 4 years before making the decision to put it away. We found that we spent too much time watching TV instead of engaging with our kids or each other. We found ourselves watching junk, making kids wait for our attention til the commercials, etc. We realized that although some people do just fine having a TV and don't overdo it and don't stay up too late watching stuff they'd be better off without, we just weren't those people. We're TV weaklings, I guess. :)

Once we stopped watching TV (we stopped videos too...just put the whole thing away) we found that we got more rest (no more staying up til 11pm because that's when the made-for-TV-movie ends!) and therefore felt better, our house was quieter, and we were better parents since we weren't putting off our kids in favor of Phil Donahue or the nightly news. I did go through a couple of transition stages, one where I listened to talk radio for hours during the day, and the other where I talked on the phone for hours every day. Thankfully, I am now able to go through entire days without any fillers in my noise space. Somehow, I think having 6 children fills that space quite enough. ;)

When we haven't even had videos available we have found that the kids do so much more creative play, they read more, and just generally spend their time in more positive ways. So, it's a good thing.

When I was on bedrest with baby #4 and I had kids ages 1, 3, and 7, we did get a little 13" TV with built-in VCR in order to help fill the hours of laying in bed trying to keep little kids happy while my husband worked his 24-hour-long shifts. TV didn't really come in very well, but movies worked just fine. Since that time we've gotten to the point where we now have 2 TVs, 2 VCRs (both broken, though, so we're considering getting rid of all of our videos), 2 DVD players, plus the PS2 which can also play DVDs. We have watched possibly too many movies, but now that we are Netflix-less, there will be less of that, although we will still avail ourselves of our library's free DVD collection. I am trying to get myself into the midset of offering movies less and less, just in the interest of having the kids choose to do some other stuff. But I will admit that I am just like every other mother who sometimes just wants the kids to shut up and veg out so that I can get something else done. So, offering movies gives me a helping hand and I'm not going to give that up at this point in my life.

Every now and then I think I might like to get cable or satellite so that I could watch HGTV or some good history or nature stuff with the kids to enrich what they're learning about in school or whatever, but then we talk about how our whole life would be oriented to the boob tube again....and so we decide not to. And truly, I can't imagine spending money on TV every month. It would probably be one of the worst money choices we've ever made. We're just really better off without it.

I love it that we have no TV in our living room. I love it that the room all the people that visit in my home is oriented toward people and not toward TV. To me I feel that not making TV a big part of our life is very much in harmony of one of my distinctive values, which is People First. I try to always value people more than other stuff, and this is one way I can do that.