of educational television in the morning. This bought me just enough time to clear the dishwasher, prepare breakfast,
and take a quick shower. No big deal, most parents I know do the same thing. It works. But somehow, that half hour
turned into an hour. This gave me just a little bit longer to take care of the never ending list of household tasks that
need to be done each day.
When my oldest quit napping, we adopted the practice of “quiet-time” in the mid-afternoon. This “quiet-time”,
originally set aside for puzzles, drawing, reading and daydreaming, evolved into “movie-time”. This added another
hour of television viewing to our expanding television schedule. Slowly but surely the evening routine of dinner, bath,
books and bed turned into dinner, bath and “movie-time”. This is all terribly embarrassing to admit.
I swore no child of mine would be singing the theme song from Barney. But here I am singing along and wondering
how in the world I am going to unplug my kids and stay sane. All this television viewing cannot be healthy for them or
for me. I’m tired of the television being the center of our world and I feel guilty. So I am drawing the line, we are going
cold turkey today. No television or videos for one week.
Day One: The Announcement
At dinner time I tell my husband that we are unplugging the television for the week. He is thrilled. He hates television. I
tell my oldest that our TV is broken, (yes, I am a wimp). He shrugs and says “that’s okay, papa can fix it.” My one
year old couldn’t care less. I feel giddy and proud to put my foot down. The evening unfolds and we enjoy racing
cars, boats in the tub and approximately 15 books. There is only one request for a movie and I remind my son that the
TV is broken. Eventually, we put the children to bed and pass out.
Day Two: The Plan
At 5:30 a.m. I wake up to start planning the week. I know I am going to have to arrange lots of outside activities and
design an array of projects for rainy moments. I bet we won’t even miss the television. Well, maybe just a little, when
the children wake up and I have to do the morning routine without my old standby. This morning we have a play date,
we’ll go grocery shopping, and late afternoon we’ll set up the wooden train set. This should buy me some time to
prepare dinner. We’ll eat, take an evening walk, give baths, brush teeth, read books and go to bed. Piece of cake!
The day is already done and my children haven’t even woken up!
Day Three: Withdrawal
At 5:45 a.m. I wake up and review yesterday. Everything went smoothly. We kept very busy with outings, ABC
magnets, puzzles & more outings. There were only three requests for movies (and one of them was mine, my husband
said no). Both children seem to be adjusting well. I, on the other hand, am feeling a void that the TV used to fill. A
friendly voice is gone and I wandered around the house trying to figure out who or what I was missing. Oh Oprah,
where art thou?
Days Four, Five, & Six: Just rolling along
There is no way in the world that I am waking up before 6:00 a.m. to review any television viewing habits. I am tired, (I’
ve been running around after two kids without the aid of the television-babysitter for goodness sake). The kids are
doing very well, my husband continues to be thrilled and I am surprisingly content without the television. Unfortunately,
my house is fit to be condemned by the health department.
Day Seven: Confessions
We fell off the wagon! My husband let our son watch a movie on the computer last night.
The Day After:
My name is Denise and my family has been TV free for seven days (well, almost). What now? Do we continue a
television-less existence? Or do we go back down that slippery slope of one half hour of educational television per
day? I think we’ll just take it one day at a time.
And so I close with a serenity prayer:
Please grant me the serenity to accept that my housework will be left undone
Give me the courage to keep the TV turned off (no matter how crazy it gets)
And the wisdom to watch it only for entertainment purposes
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