In college, we didn't have cable access. The only channels we got were through bunny-ears. If we were lucky, we got two channels. But some of my friends were tv majors. Or film majors. Or ad majors. I was a journalism major. So all of our lives revolved around some type of media. Then in junior year, our campus gave us cable tv. I think tha'ts when my downfall began. We would spend Sunday mornings watching the Food Network. We would have show viewing parties every week. But still, I had much more important things than watching tv all the time. Then I graduated and moved away from all my friends and family. My nights were spent watching tv, because there wasn't much else to do. Fast forward to today where I can tell you the schedule of pretty much any show currently airing on a major network.
Now that I'm home full-time, it's a bit of a struggle not to have the tv on all the time, every day. Now and then it's fine. But I don't want my son to be a couch-potato. I want him to learn, be curious, do things. Plus, when the tv is on, all three of us tend to sit around like logs; this is not quality family time. So I've been making an effort to keep the tv off for most of the day. We watch primetime. And I'll allow some cartoons in the morning. But other than that, I want to keep the tv off.
That in my long-winded way brings me to last night. What did we do with no tv? We had a pillow fight! It was our first as a family. It started out with hubby and I doing our sorta bickering. Then he's tossing pillows at me. So I toss them back. Connor sees this and thinks it's a lot of fun. He goes and grabs his little pillow and joins in. There we are, playful hitting each other with pillows. For a good half hour. It was a lot of fun.
Do you try to limit tv time? If so, what do you do instead?
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We try to limit tv... no tv until homework is done.. then outside to play if it is nice enough out. Or downstairs to the play room and they play Rock Band or Wii ( which is tv.. but atleast they are jumping up & down and getting some sort of excersise, right?) Then after supper, baths and story time they each have a tv *gasp* and cable in their rooms. They are allowed tv from 7-8:30 or 9 at bedtime. Most of the time they are out cold by 8 or 8:30. Mommy needs her sanity and her tv time... so yea... it lulls them to sleep.
We have actually made the choice to not have tv. We have a TV, but no cable or even local channels running into it. We watch movies or shows on the internet when we want to watch something. I think this has saved us so much time! The kids get to watch a movie if they are sick and need to rest, or if I really need a rest :). We let them watch movies a little more than that, but we try to have them clean their rooms or do their homework or something first.
We also try to dedicate Monday nights to the family. We call it Family Night or Family Home Evening. (I just spoke on this in church today so it's fresh on my mind) We're not great at it, but we're trying. That way we make sure to get some family time in during our busy week.
I really don't have a good hand on tv time. I watch it myself from 7 - 8:30 p.m. but my girls watch dora, diego, little einsteins,etc for several hours each day. I get them out of the house, play with them, color, paint, etc but sometimes the TV is great! But I would say they watch 2-3 hours a day. BUT all good stuff. They learn to speak in spanish, count, basic math (mickey mouse) etc. All in different and catchy ways that I can't reproduce. My girls are 2 and 4 by the way.
I'm a quality vs. quantity girl...
Oh BU...remember how we used to get the WB in Shelton if we pointed the antenna at the floor of our closet? Good times :-)
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