Yesterday our TV died. "Accidentally drowned during routine toddler cleaning" is what I'm guessing the coroners report will say.
I have never contemplated motherhood without a TV before, an embarrassing admission I know, but the truth. For the last year, particularly since Freddy was born, the television has been an almost constant source of background noise, distraction and entertainment. Without the TV on I wouldn't have been able to get a single thing done....or so I thought?
I'm halfway through day one and the house is clean (relatively), we've painted pictures, made fairy wands, built a house from duplo, smashed a house from duplo, had showers, gotten dressed, washed the breakfast dishes, made the beds, sewed a doll, read some books, cooked lunch, washed the lunch dishes and now both the kids are down for naps. Nothing too out of the ordinary productivity wise, but all without a single melt down and my sanity intact. Our first TV free day has, so far been pleasant and productive. I'm beginning to wonder if television really is the pixelated Mary Poppins I always thought her to be?
With an epic number of big expenses on the cards for the first half of 2011, it's going to be six months before we can afford a replacement. Six months without a television leaves me with the burning question, 'what would Mary Poppins do?'
With an epic number of big expenses on the cards for the first half of 2011, it's going to be six months before we can afford a replacement. Six months without a television leaves me with the burning question, 'what would Mary Poppins do?'
I think your kids will come up with all sorts of imaginative play ideas. I'm sure there will be the occasional meltdown but I think you'll be pleasantly surprised how well it will go.
ReplyDeleteGood luck. :)
Anne xx
You can do it! We went TV Free for about 18 months a few years ago because I realized we were spending too much time watching TV and not enough getting house projects done.
ReplyDeleteWe made do by watching some of "our shows" online. We also got Netflix and used that to watch movies on the computer.
There is a slight adjustment period for the kids but they eventually get the hang of it and start to get more creative in their daily play.
There are also websites dedicated to being a TV Free family that will give you more ideas of things to do. Good luck!
Have you ever looked at ecoMILF? She had some great advice on living TV Free: http://ecomilf.blogspot.com/#uds-search-results
ReplyDeleteI fricken hate tv. (Says the woman with zero children ;) ) *S*
ReplyDeleteWell there are often several perfectly good crt tvs dumped in the street, your blog is called curbside style...
ReplyDeletecutting back on tv is on my mind constantly. because of confined space (house renos) and crap weather, we've also gotten into the habit of having the tv on pretty much all day. mae doesn't even watch it most of the time, it's just background noise that i could seriously do without. going to start a mission to reduce the noise...
ReplyDeleteI'll take your tv Leslie, help a sista out you know...lolz
ReplyDeleteMiss Cinti, you have a point and I will be keenly looking out for a dumped tv.
Sophie, when you has the bambinos I;m sure you will be too busy chasing rainbows and telling stories and building forts in the backyard to ever have the stinky television on. x
god! anytime our TV died a little piece of me died too. I always ended up exhausted by the end of the day. You'll be great, good luck without the tele - probably by the time it comes back you'll realise that you don't want it anymore.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your last question.... have you SEEN Mary Poppin's carpet bag? She had a plethora of teles in that thing!! :D
I too think tv is the root of all bad things... but, there's some fun stuff there too!! I just ensure my two keep to some sort of quota, say an hour a day, two at weekends... that kind of thing.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget Freecycle is a great place to get a tv - might be an oldie crt style but it's something to tide you over.. or try a charity shop?
Otherwise have fun and enjoy a gogglebox free lifestyle ;)