Strollerderby

Can You Be a TV-Free Family? Just a Week?

The Wall Street Journal's must-read parenting blog, The Juggle, is doing the unthinkable, the unconscionable -- going TV-free for a week. The reason? TV is a life-sucking force that leaves you up later and later and later until, finally, you're watching informercials at 3 a.m. and wondering who on earth will wake up with the kid in just a few hours.

OK, so maybe it's not that bad. But it can be quite addictive. Just like The Juggle, my wife finds herself sucked into an extra 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there, and before you know it -- that cry-a-thon known as "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" has turned into "Iron Chef America" followed by the news and whatever else is on. "I've got to go to bed!" my wife says, rubbing her eyes.

To counter this phenomenon, the Juggle's Sara is going TV-free for a week, and is inviting people to join her. All you have to do is make it to next Wednesday, filling your extra time with reading and family activities and whatever it is people without TVs do all day instead of "Grey's Anatomy." Can you do it? Do you want to?


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Comments

 

RachelZ said:

We could be a TV-free family for a week if it weren't the end of the freaking season and all the shows are less bad than usual!  Try the first week of August when there's nothing on except Skating With Celebrities and we're outside ANYWAY.  In the spring, with the wacky and unpredictable weather, you'll have to kill me to get me to turn my TV off.   Mah shows are on!

The funny thing is, I don't watch TV at all during the day - I turn it on at 6 for the news (but then it stays on until at least 10:30 thanks to The Husband).

March 28, 2007 5:33 PM
 

Adelheid said:

No problem, I had my TV service cut off when I had my baby 8 months ago. I occasionally watch a rented movie or season of a TV show (on my time, without commercials). The real question is, could I go a week without the internets? Not without some serious twitching.

March 28, 2007 6:00 PM
 

bbbgmom said:

I go weeks without turning on the television.  I go days (perhaps full weeks) without any exposure to T.V.  My husband is "addicted" to a couple of shows, but often he gets his down time watching the taped shows on the VCR while I take the kids out on some kind of adventure... like to the library!  My children (ages 8, 6 and 1) probably watch an average of a half hour of television per week.  I don't feel like we are missing anything.  Then again when the kids are in bed I get plenty of screen time on the computer reading the NYTimes online and Babble.  :)

March 28, 2007 6:38 PM
 

cryitout said:

I think you're onto something Adelheid. When Dana was in law school, we didn't have a TV -- and we seemed to get by just fine somehow. But take away the internets? I think we'd go crazy.

March 28, 2007 6:55 PM
 

Lilee said:

Totally doable - there's no new Grey's this week!

March 28, 2007 9:54 PM
 

mum said:

Man, My family has been TV free for years! I haven't had one  since college. I actually start to feel sort of crazy when I am in a place with a TV: The pacing of TV shows, the pace of commercials, the fact that the volume changes between commercials and episodes, and, dear God, the news! I feel like such a chump when I watch commercials and corporate news!

We go to movies and once a month or when someone is sick we rent DVD's. It's great. We spend a lot of time outside or working on things (yard, music, and painting).

An added bonus is my kid doesn't mimic annoying characters like Sponge Bob or beg me for Power Rangers and junk food.

But I agree with Cryitout, my husband and I might go nuts without the internet.

March 28, 2007 10:33 PM
 

Jordan said:

No problem here.  We did it for over a year and it had a wonderful effect on our son (we didn't watch much to begin with, but he was quite the little beggar when we let him watch half an hour a day - it was totally not worth the "break" to have him whining for it the rest of the time!).  Now that our kids are a little older, it's getting limited use for rented DVDs.  I highly encourage people to try it; I think it's easier than it sounds.  But, oh, yeah: no internets? Forget about it.  

March 28, 2007 10:48 PM
 

Sam said:

Our TV died before the baby was born. We never replaced it.  We now use Netflix and a projector, and get to watch movies, TV series, and documentaries, regularly at home.  Easy, free popcorn, and no babysitter needed.

March 29, 2007 9:15 AM
 

Holmes said:

Well, I can't say our house is totally TV free, but we got rid of our cable a while back, so the only TV we're watching is what we get from Netflix.  With me in grad school, my wife running a business at home, and a toddler, we didn't really have time to be popping on the tube anyway, so we're not missing it in the least.  Giving up internet though, now THAT would be a challenge.  

March 30, 2007 1:54 PM

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