Does anyone live in a television free home?
This is something I’m really considering and really trying to convince my husband to get on board with or at least think about the possibility of maybe doing without it for the entire summer. Stowing it away in the garage and reevaluating at summers end.
If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been MIA for the last month or so. Not even really sure why but in that time I suddenly want to buy land and add a little more simple to our lives. Less distractions, more time for family, for discovering, for learning together and making lasting memories. Now the land might not be a possibility right away but I know that adding a bit of simpleness to our lives is something we can achieve right now.
Anyways let me know if you’ve tried a T.V. free life? We will have to keep our computer to continue living in the world today (and I would never be able to convince my husband otherwise) and I would love for my kids to still be able to watch the educational shows that they love such as The Magic School Bus (love it)!!
Also I have thought about just turning the t.v off at night. Really don’t watch much at all while kids are awake but at night is when I catch up on my shows and I really feel like lately my time is completely wasted on this. Although I do love my shows!;)
What do you guys think? Have you done this or thought about it? Would live to hear some input.
Mommy Lanes Adventures 
I have struggled with this issue myself. We have gone tv free for a week at a time, but not longer than that. We have cut the cord with cable, and only get PBS channels at home now. We also use Netflix and Hulu.
Sounds a lot like us. At this point we don’t even have PBS but we do indulge in Netflix and for me I tend to get stuck watching shows after kids bedtime. 😦 More than I should. Would be nice to not have it so readily available.
We do, and we don’t. We HAVE a television, but are not hooked up to cable. This means we are able to watch DVD’s, but not mainstream channels. Our screen time is limited to one movie an evening, and open hours on weekends.
We’ve had this policy for several years, and enjoy it. It’s a good balance of both worlds.
That sounds about like us except we do have Netflix which does have a lot of educational stuff for the kiddos. I just tend to turn it on when I have free time instead of doing things that probably need done. I may need to have a schedule and limit for myself!;) Thanks for your comment!
I couldn’t do it! I’m not a major TV addict but I do like to watch Netflix and I would really miss all the documentaries I like and the little ones would go mad at me! I totally understand the urge to live simpler and have less screen time. Maybe trial it for a week and see if you could live without it.
Yeah, as of right now the hubby is totally against it so I think I will just have to set up some limits for myself. 😉 I grew up with the tv on all the time and while we definitely don’t do that in our house it’s hard to break away from that when the kids are in bed. I do love me so Netflix!
We were tv free for many years, when the children were younger. Now we have Netflix, Amazon, etc.. no cable. I think being without for so many years helped us to not be in the habit of watching, so we don’t watch much. It’s nice having something available now when we want to just relax and watch something funny. I’d say be careful in your decisions. If your husband wants television then yes, just limit yourself. I like to do a couple morning shows on netflix for the kids in the morning so I can have a little time to myself . Then the tv is off for the entire day. You get used to it. If you like “noise” you can try music….I find music helps make things like cleaning and cooking more enjoyable. Good luck! And don’t be too hard on yourself. Sometimes those things we think are so awful, aren’t so bad in the long run. 🙂
That is very true. It’s not like we have it on all day, hardly at all so maybe I’m just having a “I’m a horribly mommy” meltdown for nothing. Would love to try it out even just for a shorter period than the entire summer. Hubby may be more on board if I scale the time back a little;)
Good luck with it all! Keep us posted. 🙂
I love the idea of this! Already, I keep the t.v. off most of the daytime, and I rarely watch at night, though the t.v. does come on when my husband gets home. I’m just usually busy cooking, cleaning up after dinner, and lately I’ve been working on planning our homeschool year next year, or getting stuff ready for my son’s upcoming graduation…..which seems to be taking a whole lot of time!
I’d love to have the t.v. off and play games as a family, or read, or ride bikes, or go to the park….especially as the weather gets nicer. And, though we do this some times, it would be better to take the time more often.
Good luck with this journey….my kids are 18, 15, 9, and almost 3, and the older they get the harder to convince of this. And, as you stated, convincing the husband can be a chore! Especially husbands who are into sports and use t.v. to decompress after a day of work.
Again, though, I love the idea of this and hope with my younger children, especially, we can keep screen time to a minimum!
I think we will try to limit it and go from there. I’m kinda the one that uses it to fill up time on those extra slow days;) but still isn’t on much at all during the day. I guess we will just take it slow and see how it goes!!:) Thanks so much for your comment.
This sounds like a great balance! Thanks for sharing.
We do have a TV, only to watch DVDs. Our screen time is limited. We do spend alot of time together as family to do other things. If there’s a programme or film we want to see we either catch up on iPlayer etc or rent it, if available. We’ve been TV free for 5 years now. Initially it was hard for our children but as time goes by they enjoy doing other things and they don’t miss it at all. Good Luck
Thanks so much for your input. Nice to hear that families can survive without it!!:)
We have a TV but we don’t have cable or anything like that. We use DVD’s or Netflix. We haven’t had TV in nearly 10 years so I definitely don’t miss it. I like being able to watch when we feel like it as opposed to on some kind of TV schedule. Honestly a lot of the time we have the TV on for background noise while we run around the house all day long. I am a very quiet person and it is hard for me to talk constantly, so TV helps with vocabulary without us actually watching it a lot. She learns a lot from shows like Super Why but we don’t actively watch TV much. More over the winter just because it is often much to cold to go outside with a child, but that’s about it. I think it’s an adjustment but I like not having TV. I also grew up in a house where cable was randomly cut off when my parents couldn’t pay so I got used to not caring about TV pretty early on. Once you do it you won’t miss it nearly as much as you think. We’ve only had Netflix maybe 2 years, and it’s nice for kids. I love all the educational programming. Much better than cable.
Thank you so much for your comment. That’s all we have too so maybe I am just stressing over nothing. I really can’t imagine life without netflix. I never thought my kids would get a chance to love shows that I grew up with like The Reading Rainbow. Definitely educational too!!:)
If all you have is Netflix then I wouldn’t worry. If you want to do less tv maybe just try no TV till a certain time or after certain events in the day. Or just turn off your modem for a while. I love Netflix. I think the benefits over cable are quite nice. Price, content, parental controls… It’s hard to dislike anything about Netflix. Honestly I think as long as they are watching educational stuff as opposed to junk, it isn’t a big worry. Especially in the summer where most people are outside and gone a lot more already. We barely spend any time indoors once it gets warm enough.
Since kids really can learn so much from certain shows, we haven’t completely done away with TV, although we did cut off the cable. We use Netflix now. It’s so much better without the commercials, and it’s so much easier to monitor!
Totally worth not having commercials. Those are really one of the worst things about cable. Thanks so much for you comment!!
I’ve never tried it, but I have two friends who do not own TVs at all. Ironically, they both own plots of land with animals and they grow their own veggies. I’m not sure I could ever do it, but I have noticed that both of their sets of children seem to be great conversationalists who know how to entertain themselves and also interact with human beings. Best of luck to you!
Thanks for commenting. One day I would love to own land so maybe I can put it off until then. 😉