Friday, August 29, 2008

Off.


We're all about improvement here at AL. Which is why I'm totally watching To-Fu's 'poo-less experience with great interest. To be free of shampoo's bonds!!

On my own improvement front, here at Casa Beany we've broken up with the television. We're on break at least.

It started Wednesday morning when I opted for a no TV morning after some sibling squabbling. They whined a while and then things got amazing. Seriously. They played with each other better, played outside more, were calmer and had better attitudes. This is after skipping just their regular morning hour of PBS. I decide I hate children's programing at this point and we skip their afternoon hour also in favor of playing samurai. I can't express enough how just skipping these two hours made them CALMER. And this is Curious George we're talking about. I can't imagine if they regularly viewed super hyper shows.

We've gone three full television-free days now. I am thrilled that I stumbled on this challenge. I really thought of the TV as a sanity saver and considered their 2 hours quite moderate. As I step back and look, it caused more harm than good in our house. We've collectively decided to keep er off weekdays and enjoy favorite cartoons and movies on weekends only.

I want to state that I do not think TV is evil and it does have great value. I think it's a tool and easily gets used as a necessity. There have been countless articles and reports on the damage to children by the telly. Most of which, to be honest, I ignored. We don't have the TV on all day long, we don't put on weird shows for our babies, we don't watch during meals, we monitor closely the content of their programs, they spend only a couple hours in front of it, we spend time reading and playing together has well, I have three kids at home! I don't have time to read these reports that aren't for me. They were. Are. The proof has been in the pudding, as it usually is.

3 comments:

mle said...

WTG! we go through spurts of TV-free-ness, and it's always like a wonderful detox. i have found myself relying on TV to help get marty down for a nap (i can usually only eek out one decent nap anymore). in lieu of TV, i've recently started putting on some classical music instead. it works well! (sometimes i secretly wish we lived in the days before TV)

mle said...

p.s. TV for us is ONLY PBS. and even then, i'm super choosy

BeanyMama said...

I love the idea of classical music! I'm going to try for sure. I also secretly wish we lived it the TV free or early TV days. I want to gather around the radio and listen to Little Orphan Annie with the fam a la Christmas Story : D