One day in early June, the cable guy came to my house and unplugged our television right in the middle of Sponge Bob. My kids anticipated the switch our family was going to try to make, but they were still a little stunned when they realized what that meant smack dab in the middle of a good episode. I am not a big television watcher myself, so the impact was probably greater for the other members of my household, and I was worried that this decision was going to be faced with a lot of resistance and protest. To my surprise, it was not.
I came to this decision after a wonderful television free weekend up north over Memorial Day weekend. The energy of the weekend was quiet and calm. The kids seemed to fill their time with creative, interesting projects inside and out. Everyone slowed down and of course, being up north, we were more connected to nature, which always feels nourishing and replenishing.
I came home and wondered how we could recreate that “vacation” feeling all the time? Television was a big part of that equation.
I was also feeling for months like the television was starting to become the central point of the family connectedness. It seemed like one show was turning into four shows, and before you knew it, several hours were wasted and gone. I don’t mean to say that there is nothing worth watching on television, but mindless cartoons for children and pointless sitcoms or reality shows that seem to feast on human flaws were beginning to enter the energy of my household more than I was comfortable with.
In my mind, I wondered what it would be like to go the entire summer without television at all. It was easy actually. My kids filled their time with interesting art projects and their own thoughts and creations — thoughts that were not generated from a television show, thoughts that were not influenced by marketing or commercialism.
According to the Parents Television Council:
The average time kids spend watching television each day is four hours.
Children spend more time watching television than any other activity except sleep.
44 percent of kids say they watch something different when they’re alone than with their parents.
65 percent say that some shows encourage kids to disrespect their parents.
Witnessing repeated violent acts can lead to desensitization and a lack of empathy for human suffering.
Now, after months living television free, we find ourselves watching the kids more instead of watching the television. We talk and fold laundry rather than fold laundry and watch a show. We make more trips to the library, we linger over long recipes, cook more, garden more, spend more time outdoors and in a way, we’ve reclaimed our house again. The energy and thoughts are our own, uninfluenced by fear based news coverage or unrealistic drama staged reality shows. Sure, we miss it when everyone is talking the next day about the U of M/MSU game or the recent miner rescue, but the tradeoff is substantial and in many ways has made room for other more significant things.
Our time is limited here. How do you want to spend it?