Simply Brilliant

Get A Life--Turn Off Your TV

I grew up with TV. Everyday after school it was Gilligan's Island, I Dream of Genie, Leave It To Beaver, and Hogan's Heros. There were the World of Disney Sunday Night Movies, Saturday morning cartoons and Science Fiction Theatre on Saturday afternoons. I don't know that much of this did me any good, but I know that it didn't do me any harm either. Eventually cable TV came on the market and my mother, always being one for the newest and best, signed up. It was HBO time. Now things changed. Those harmless, entertaining shows I watched (for I was a simple person) were replaced with foul language, violence, and nudity. So many things are stuck in my head now from my HBO days that I wish weren't there. However, I continued to watch TV and cable programs for years as programming got bolder and raunchier. I complained and berated the medium, but it never occurred to me to do anything else about it, even after I started having children.

Finally I am in my forties with seven children and it occurs to me that I don't have to have TV in my home. What a thought! It' s akin to saying we won't have sugar or carbohydrates or meat in our home (actually, we have all those still). Deciding to go without TV is like deciding to go on the big diet. It's a great idea, but nothing much comes of it. Well, we did it and it wasn't really that hard. Basically all I did was cancel the cable and never put up an antenna for local channels. We still have the TVs in our home (about four of them, I think), but you can't get much more that one, snowy channel. I thought my older kids would give me a hard time, but I kid you not when I say they they have never said one word about wanting to watch TV. My younger kids don't even remember ever seeing tv or cable shows. I don't understand this good behavior. When I mentioned that we don't have TV to one of my kids' cousins she exclaimed, "How do you live!?" Why my kids don't react the same way I don't know, but I won't question it. Actually it is my wife and I that have the TV delerium tremors. Even though it has been four years since we disconnected cable I will still get the shakes sometimes because I want so badly to watch a TV show. I grew up with it. It doesn't leave your blood quickly. I really miss Malcolm in the Middle, and King of the Hill. But recently I went to a friend's house to watch a DVD and I saw a little TV while there. I don't know what show I saw, but it was so vapid and stupid that I had no trouble remembering why we disconnected.

I am a big Internet fan and get all my world news and social information there. I also listen to the radio where I keep up with Hollywood's goings on. We discuss everything at the dinner table at night (although the noise level with seven kids is quite high and it's hard to discuss anything sometimes). From everything I hear about any tv or cable shows, I don't think I am missing a thing. I heard raves about the Sopranos. I have never seen one episode and yet I my life is busy and fulfilling. I accomplish so much without the TV. I have gotten a black belt in taekwondo, started an internet business, taken up digital photography, homeschool my kids, learned chess with my son, read several books with my family, learned to fly boomerangs, and so much more. And my kids are doing the same. I can't imagine that my life is any less for not having seen the Sopranos, or Survivor, or American Idol. And think of the tens of thousands of commercials I have missed! I feel like I am flipping the bird to the entire marketing world! Oh the joy! My kids are happy and as busy as I am. They speak their own language (not the collective langauge of Hollywood and certainly no profanity) and own their own mind. The thoughts they have have not been put in their heads by Hollywood writers abetted by TV stars.

I must admit that we do watch loads of movies--my kids many more than me. But with movies we are in full control of what we pick and don't have take what someone else picks for us. We don't do R rated movies and are careful about PG 13 (yes, you can have those restrictions and still see loads of entertaining and intelligent movies). We have a large DVD library (with too many VHSs).

Another interest note is that when my kids have their cousins and friends over they all have a ball. We will have cousins and friends come down for days at a time and they never seem to get bored even though tv and cable is a major part of their lives in their homes. At my home they play Rifts (imaginative, role-playing game), Dance Dance Revolution, computer games, fly boomerangs, fly kites, play Boggle, watch movies, and just talk. They seem to love to come to our place and we love to have them.

The whole "no TV" thing is succeeding for me. My children have shown no need for it and I am seeing them become individuals--happy, caring, involved kids who speak their own language and think their own thoughts and who find themselves interesting company.

Give it a try. First write down all the things you have always wanted to do, then cancel your cable and disconnect your TV antenna and go do those things. Your quality of life will probably improve.

posted by PapaT @ 2:00 PM