By Katherine
Next week is annual Screen-Free Week (formerly TV-Turnoff Week). It also marks about the one year anniversary of our family shutting off cable.
Where do we stand? Overall, are we tuning in less often? I think so.
Are we watching less crap and better programming? Definitely.
During those interminable, time-has-no-meaning, housebound weeks with a newborn this past fall, I watched nearly every documentary in the Netflix on-demand library. (Nearly every. I finally got up the courage to watch The Cove, but I’m still too frightened for Jesus Camp.)
If it wasn’t for getting rid of cable, I wouldn’t have budgeted for the Netflix subscription, and I probably would have watched a lot more Regis & Kelly and a lot less Ken Burns. (Brain atrophy is a real problem post-partum, but it needn’t be excessive.)
My husband and I now take a few week nights completely off the boob tube and use the extra moments to do much more productive things with our time: like reading blogs about what other people do with their time.
Occasionally we use this extra hour—really, it’s only an hour between (1) bedtime routines and (2) cleaning up the A-bomb explosion in the kitchen from a day’s worth of homemade meals and collapsing into our own beds—to synch our calendars. We hardly ever forget to take out the trash now (miniscule-ish trash that it is now).
Also, I wisely use this TV-free time to stare at my pile of half-knit objects. One of these nights I just know I’ll be inspired enough to put down the laptop and glass of wine and actually pick up the needles.
With respect to the four-year-old daughter, however, TV viewing habits aren’t much changed. She still only watches a very limited list of age-appropriate PBS programs and some commercial-free Nick Jr. preschool stuff on Netflix—but she’s not watching any less than before the cable kabbash. Some days she watches none; other days (Friday “movie night” in particular) it’s as much as two-three hours.
I wouldn’t necessarily think this is a huge problem, except that, the other day while I was reading her a book, she told me to “pause it” so she could go potty.
This, I think, is a problem.
With all the Netflix- and TiVo-ing, I guess I’ve allowed my child to believe she can get instant gratification by pushing a few buttons or tapping a screen.
Also, apparently, she thinks her mom can be “paused.”
So I’m going all in for TV Turnoff week this year. If we survive, maybe we’ll get a few steps closer to tuning out for good. There will be tears I’m sure—from her, without Dinosaur Train; from me, when I can’t get 30 minutes of peace to make dinner while she watches Dinosaur Train.
Anyone out there planning to scrap the screen this week? Any tips?
Recent Comments