No More TV

My nightly routine is as follows:  I put the kids to bed from 7:00-8:30.  At 8:30, it is ‘Becca Time’.  This occurs whether or not everyone is asleep.  I officially take myself off Mommy Duty at 8:30.  By that point I am tired and have been a Mommy for almost 14 hours. My patience and energy are completely gone and I am done!  Around 8:30pm I stroll into the kitchen, make myself a margarita, pop some popcorn, and sit in front of the television until 10:00pm.  I watch mindless shows – some are silly and others are a series that we are into.  We are currently almost through season one of Six Feet Under.  So when Tom asked me a few weeks ago if I wanted to give up TV for Lent my first reaction was “No way!”  I think I literally said, “What would we do at night?”  His answer was “read books, play games, have sex, and sleep more.”  Those are all great things, but I really enjoy my one hour of mindlessness each night.  It is my escape from a busy, loud, and mentally overwhelming day.  I told him that I would have to think about it.

Giving up something for Lent has never happened in my life.  I typically feel that Lent is a made up period of time that Christians came up with.  It isn’t biblical, in my view.  I also know that I have so few vices these days that if I were to give one of them up I would be depriving myself of one of the few things that I enjoy in life.  Most people give up things like sugar, alcohol, caffeine….things I am not willing to give up.  Tom doesn’t give stuff up typically either, especially not TV.  He likes it more than I do…..I was surprised that he even suggested it and even more surprised that I was the one to shoot down the idea.

The television is something I have wanted to shut off for a while now.  Wilson relies on it pretty heavily.  He loves to watch his TV shows in the morning before school and in the afternoon if he can’t come up with something to do.  I love it because it entertains him so that I can sleep longer or make breakfast alone.  Tom and I haven’t spent much quality time together after the kids go to bed because the TV is on and he falls asleep after about thirty minutes.  The only hour that we have to spend together during the day is consumed by a giant screen on the wall.  Not the worst of habits, but not the best of them either.

After Bible study on Thursday morning I was talking to my good friend Sidney.  She and I have a lot of the same views and have known each other since birth.  She mentioned that their household was giving up TV until Easter.  I was amazed!  They enjoy the TV more than we do.  I knew that it was a big sacrifice.  It also reminded me of when we were in high school and our two families had a “no TV for a week” challenge.  We thought we would never make it a week without TV…and that was in the 1980s!  Sidney inspired me to rethink Tom’s idea to give up TV for the six weeks before Easter.  I knew that giving up TV would improve my marriage.  I knew that it would improve my home life.   I definitely knew that it would improve Wilson’s ability to play with his toys and learn to entertain himself better.  The only downfall would be that I couldn’t self medicate with a little mindlessness after a busy day…..not much of a downfall when you think about it.

I called Tom and told him that I thought that we should turn off the TV and he agreed.  The next challenge was to get the kids to buy into it.  I decided that in the car was the best time to do it.  As I drove them all home from school that afternoon I told them that Lent was a time for people to reflect on their lives.  A time to see what they were doing well and what needed improvement.  I told them that people often gave something up for Lent because Jesus gave up His life for us and we should give something up too.  They were very receptive to this idea.  Faith’s first idea was to give up a toy that she never played with anyway.  Not quite what I was looking for but she was getting there.  I then told them that Tom and I thought that we should turn off the television for the next six weeks.  Wilson immediately began to cry.  Poor thing.  He is so sweet and so cute when he cries, but he really loves his TV.   He seemed better after I told them that they could each pick and watch one “Good-bye TV” television show.  It was the grand finale show that would hold them over until Easter.  They did it and there were no more tears.

We are now 24 hours into the TV fast.  It really hasn’t been that difficult.  Wilson woke up this morning, didn’t ask for the TV, and he came into the kitchen with me to help make breakfast.  I was amazed!!  No one asked for it this afternoon when it was cold and rainy either.  I had to go out tonight to a class and when I came home Tom had rearranged the furniture so that the fireplace was the main focal point of the living room and not the television.  I may even cover it up with some of the kids art work or something.  We will see what becomes of it over the next month and a half. This is a major decision for our family.  I know that it will be so beneficial for all of us.   Right now it is 9:20pm and everyone is asleep except for me.  That is fine with me.  It is nice to sit on the couch, enjoy the quiet and type out some of my thoughts.  So far, we are doing amazingly well without the television.  Who knows, maybe we won’t want it back…..


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