It’s not like they’re a couple of little robots sitting in
front of it all day or anything, but they'll usually watch a show or two first thing in the morning, a movie in the afternoon and another movie
or another couple of shows before bed.
We’ve been using the TV as a means to keep the kids quiet
while we get things done around the house, a way for them to cool down in the
afternoon in lieu of taking a nap and, if I’m being completely honest here, it’s
also been a case of lazy parenting. It’s
just easy to put on a movie and let it keep them entertained for a little
while.
A couple of movies and a show didn’t seem too terrible at first thought. When I stopped to think about it a little more though, it dawned on me that it was
3.5-4 hours of television every day.
Over 24 hours of TV a week! It
has to stop so I’ve just introduced my family to the NO TV CHALLENGE. That’s right, I’ve taken it away for one week. Not too much time, but enough to hopefully
make a huge impact on our family.
My husband refused to help me physically remove it from the
wall (he said that was taking the challenge a little too far), so this is what
I did:
This is the reaction I got from my daughter:
What you did takes both wisdom and courage. Kids are reading far less, are incredibly less creative *so I hear from art and music teachers* and have literally become little sponges soaking up the ideals and platitudes of advertisers and television promoters. As an author who grew up on a ranch in the Arizona high country with no television and the weakest of radio reception at night only, I most certainly had to learn to use my imagination and ingenuity. Today...I put those skills into writing novels.
ReplyDeleteBravo to you!! Don't let those little glazed faces sway you; you did a great thing! Jodi Lea Stewart, author of the Silki, the Girl of Many Scarves series.
Hi Jodi Lea - thanks for the support. The kids have actually been pretty great about the no tv thing so far. I've been the one wishing I could flip it on now again for a little rest! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading. xo