Technical Difficulties: Our T.V. Free Week

"What do you think about shutting off the T.V. for a week?" Like some sort of guerrilla warrior I dropped the bomb out of thin air.  "A what now?" my husband responded. "A T.V. Free Week. I think we are sucked in." With MUCH hesitation in his voice my husband agreed. 

We had gotten way to comfortable with having the T.V. on.... A LOT! We were eating in front of the T.V. 5 or so nights a week. The kids had gotten to point where they had assumed it was one of their inalienable rights as a member of the family. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Cartoons I realized something needed to be done when my son had a fit when I told him he couldn't have the T.V. on one afternoon. They play outside a lot but on rainy days they just want to vegetate. I said "That's enough T.V. for the day." With a groan from deep within he replied "Noooooo. I need to watch it! If you don't let me watch it I will be unhappy the rest of the day." It was like a siren went off, Houston we have a problem. First of all I do not respond well to manipulation tactics. Second the fact that he thought it would alter his entire day and mood was a serious problem. 

How did I get here? I was the Mom that was super anal retentive about T.V. time. We don't allow them to have game devices yet, they aren't permitted to have a television in there room. But here we were suckling off the teat of the boob tube. And even though I heard from some parents that the amount of time they were spending was nothing compared to their child's screen time, I was not okay with this. 

So starting last Monday we went one full week without the television. No learning movies online, none of it. I just knew this was going to bring us closer as a family. I had these visions of us playing board games and chuckling to ourselves. And while there was some of that. There was also a lot of down time fights. The two older boys had nothing else to do but play together which was resulting in lots of arguments and a couple open handed slaps to the chest. It seemed to me that this may have been back firing. It also made me realize that I had been using it as a babysitter and mediator far too frequently. Despite the fights we made it through, and really with far less protest than I suspected. We got about 200 minutes worth of reading in. Played a board game nearly every night, and I'm sure saved on some electric. 

Best of all it worked like a reset. Last night we sat down to the table to eat, no questions asked. They watched one show with breakfast and outside they went. No begging for another and then another. Asking for audio books instead of videos. Bondage no matter what form it comes in is never okay. If you feel like you MUST do anything it would do you well to remove it for a while. 

Now, See, I am freeing you today from the chains upon your hands... Jeremiah 40:4a