Well, I did it. I finally got fed up enough and pulled the plug. The Dada had warned the kids that I’d do it. “Mom’s only going to last so long,” he said. “If you kids don’t start controlling yourselves with this TV, eventually she’ll get fed up and take it away.”
And it happened.
I felt like I was always fighting with my kids over the TV. Getting mad at them for how much it was on. I felt like every time it wasn’t on, they were lurking in the living room, waiting for when I’d let them turn it on again.
Now, this is hard to admit, but I’m going to be honest now about our TV viewing habits.
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We have one television in our home. It’s in the main room of the house, an open room that has our living area, kitchen, and eating area all in one. In the morning, The Dada and I would be up first. One of us would turn on the TV and have the morning news on in the background while we ate breakfast and hung out a bit before he went to work. Eventually the three little boys would start waking up, and the TV would switch over to cartoons. Playhouse Disney or Nick Jr, specifically. It’s “like preschool on tv,” you know.
The little boys would watch tv for a bit, then they’d want to eat, they’d play a bit, all with the tv on in the background. I’d start cleaning the kitchen up, picking up and vacuuming the main room, eventually my cleaning taking me into other parts of the house. The older two would wake up. My oldest would eventually switch the tv over to older kids cartoons. At 10AM, “The Baby” would go in for his nap, and I’d take advantage of that time to get as much done as possible.
Around 11:30, CamCam and “Mr. Trouble” would tell me they were hungry for lunch. I’d now realize that the tv was STILL on, my older 2 were laying on the couch in their pj’s, hadn’t eaten or anything. I’d get mad and tell them that they needed to learn when enough was enough and when it was time to turn off the television. You would think that after having this same conversation over and over eventually I would learn that they didn’t know when enough was enough and when it was time to turn off the television.
Afternoons pretty much consisted of someone turning on the tv every time I was distracted, me turning it off, someone else turning it on. In the evenings, it would go on soon after dinner, sometime between 7 and 8, and it generally didn’t get turned off until The Dada and I went to bed.
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So on Sunday, I pulled the plug. I had my usual morning meltdown, and then The Dada asked why we didn’t just turn it off. He went down to the basement and unhooked our Satellite at the source. It didn't’ take long for the kids to realize that the tv was “broken”. I told them we had one week before school started, and we were going “TV Free”. Actually, it’s going to be satellite free, I’m not opposed to the occasional renting of a movie or little kids cartoon.
The kids hung out on the couches, like usual. But it wasn’t the usual wresting, fighting, laying around and generally driving me nuts until I turn it back on. They complained for about 10 minutes about the tv being broken. Then “Leader of the FabFive” said “Come on Little Miss, let’s go play in my room.”
And "Mr. Trouble” said, “Come on CamCam, let’s go play our choo-choo trains.”
And just like that, they were off. Playing together. Inventing games. Using the imaginations I thought they had lost.
I’d say Day 1 of No TV was a roaring success.
