Today was the first day of our new "no TV" policy. When I asked Ethan to rate how hard it was to go with out TV on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 being very easy and 10 being very hard) he immediately said "Ten!"
I asked him if he'd not had fun playing Frisbee with his friends at the park, which is what he did after school instead of watching TV. He thought for a moment, then revised his original remark and rated the difficulty at about a 6. He said it was hardest in the morning before school because he just had to sit and wait for the bus to come.
Jonah and Isaac played several board games together today and I only had to intervene minimally. Jonah went on a long walk with his dad and came back with 6 cups of blackberries. Ethan worked on building a roller coaster out of K'nex building parts. Robert even read a whole book!
I didn't really end up with any extra free time, but I predict there will be less crushed pretzels and popcorn kernels on the floor right in front of the TV. That means I won't have to vacuum as often, so I have that going for me, which is nice.
3 comments:
I need to do this with my family now that school has started. Claire has missed 2 1/2 days of school so far (she has only been in 8 days) due to being sent home for a 103 degree fever and an ear ache. Of course, you have to lay in front of the TV all day when you are sick!! I think we will start this tomorrow, although Jason might not be on board.
We are letting the kids watch 2 hours on the weekend and have 1 hour of computer time. There will also be weekend exceptions like America's Funniest Home Videos and college football.
I did tell Robert that once shows like "The Office" started, I would be watching TV when the kids were asleep, but during the day and through the early evening, we are not watching TV.
I almost gave in today after Jonah went to kindergarten...Isaac was so sad and bored, he begged to watch a show. After about 15 minutes of begging, he found something else to do.
We gave up TV last week. I did it more because of Calvin's recent behavior at school. I'm getting to the point where I feel like a bad parent for allowing him to watch TV. Andrew has been telling me for a long time, but I didn't think it was a big deal. Like what else is he supposed to do while I'm getting ready in the morning, or while I'm surfing the web, or while I'm making lunch, or while he's eating breakfast and lunch? It's been hard, and I have barely been able to make it through the days when he's home and Andrew is at work. It feels like I'm a cruise director all day with back to back activities. I have noticed in the last few days that when the time would come for me to do something on my own he would occupy himself with an activity for much longer than he's been able to do in the past. I'm thinking this "NO TV" policy is a good one. I try to come up with a list of activities for our day including walks, games, art, playing, etc. that I review with him in the morning and it helps us get through the day. I feel your pain!!!!!
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