July Unplugged :: Our Family’s Goal and Challenge to You!
I wish I were all crunchy-hippy-eco enough to be all “We don’t own a television, we simply sit and drink tea together whilst engaging in intellectually scintillating conversation, encouraging one another in spiritual things, and gazing attentively upon our children frolicking in nature as they play with non-commercialized creative-minded toys.” But that’s just not me. Not all the time, anyway.
Confession: we own a television. And not only do we own a television, but we do sit and gaze upon it from time to time, being “mindlessly entertained”… and {*gasp*} enjoying it.
I don’t think that TV is inherently evil. Or at least, I haven’t yet found a compelling argument that would convince me to such. I do, however, think that we are way too easily sucked in to watching too much. {And that line will be different for each person – too much for me may be WAY too much for you, or not too much at all.} I do intentionally limit the shows I watch regularly (2-3/week), and I never just sit down and channel surf mindlessly, or turn on the TV unless I have something specific already in mind to watch. In this way, I use it as a tool to relax or to be entertained, or as an activity to enjoy while cuddling with my Honey. I also have a ‘no TV during the day’ rule (except for Isaac watching something while I put Aliza down for her nap). I do sometimes break this rule, but to be honest, that’s really rare. I’m pretty ok with this balance for our home.
Nonetheless, the days still only offer twenty-four hours in which to do ALL of the things that I want to do… and that is a *very* long list, my friends. Thus, in light of the imminent season of sunshine and popsicles, and the potential time-sucking properties of the boob tube… we are implementing TV Timeout for the entire month of July. Partly it’s an attempt to get all we can out of our summer, and partly it’s a little family experiment… just to see what happens.
We’re going to literally unplug the television, and put it in the basement, so that we aren’t tempted (it’ll work for me for sure, since I have no idea how to hook it up again!). No watching downloaded shows on our laptops from the internet, either, or movies.
I am wondering if there’s anyone out there in internet-land that might be inspired and/or convicted to attempt this challenge alongside us? It would be awfully nice to have some company with which to share ideas and to encourage!
If you’d like to join us in unplugging your TV for the month of July this summer, please leave a comment telling me so. If there is perhaps a small group of us, I will write another post where we can exchange ideas of what to do instead of TV, and obstacles we might face in our challenge.
Care to join us?
We’re in, I just keep forgetting to comment. We have netflix that we’ll need to cancel and we watch seasons of series. For me, the internet is more of the issue… something that i’m having to give up because living on a farm in the spring and summer is just so busy that I rarelyhave time to waste lots of time on here. Anyway, no tv… I’ll let you know how it goes.
Awesome. The internet is definitely big for me too… I’m going to tackle that in a different way, I think. The no-computer-on-Mondays thing is what I’m going to attempt…
To be quite honest, I don’t want to join in but am curious to see how it works for all that do join in! I am like you and don’t watch a lot of TV but it is on in the evening for time spent with the hubby. I don’t want that relaxing time taken away. lol. It also is way too hot to be outside a lot in the middle of July where I live.
Yes I’m making excuses! haha However, I love the idea!
Maybe you could try a mini version – a week, or even a day… that would be a good start!
Love this idea!! I wouldn’t find it all that hard as I really don’t watch much anyway and at the moment am more into my crocheting. When summer comes I’d rather sit out in a hammock with a good book than be stuck inside in front of the TV. I’m not sure I could get the fam on board though. I just convinced my husband to unplug the cable which effectively eliminated our purposeless unplanned gazing at the TV…usually while one of us clicked through all the channels to find the least horrible thing to watch. Instead we now take more chances to listen to a devotional together (yes, I said listen…check out http://www.lesfeldick.org. Love this guys insights into scripture). It might be a bit much to ask him to cut it out completely this soon after. But the biggest obstacle would have to be the kids. The only thing I find that absolutely guarantees me some peaceful time or a even chance to make supper some nights is to put on a kid friendly show and let them zone out. I could really use some ideas in that arena…on how to get my kids interested in something that doesn’t have a screen on it! They’re great outside, but in the house it’s a lot harder to get them occupied. Can’t wait to see if anyone has ideas on that….
I’m working on some ideas for the kiddos… I think it’ll take lots of prep work, but the rewards will be sweet. As for hubby – perhaps he’d be open to trying it for just a week instead of a full month (and maybe he’ll like it and want to continue!?)
Husband and I gave up movies this past Lent, which seriously cut into our viewing time since we don’t own a TV and rarely watch programming online. Over the weeks we played marathon card games, went to bed early, edited our digital photo collection, and curled up on the couch reading novels. When we watched our first movie after Easter, we were disappointed. Not as great entertainment as we thought a movie should be.
Enjoy your July TV vacation!
That sounds awesome! I’d like to play more card/board games with hubby… there are lots out there that can be fun with just 2 people. And editing our photo collection – that would be truly miraculous!
Its funny when I read about others television habits, it always makes me take stock of my own. We don’t have any sort if cable hook up, and the only tv we watch is seasons of shows we’ve borrowed…but even for having ‘no tv’ we do watch more than I’d like. We always watch something with dinner – we find it useless to talk while chewing. And then we’ll watch something later before bed. At the most we watch maybe 2 hours – which doesn’t seem like a lot – but when all those other hours are spent doing chores, at work, or running errands, our tv habit does eat into the little unadulterated quality time we have to be together, and thats no good for us. I’d like to think we’d just stop watching so much as the weather gets nicer – and I actually think we will given that we tend to be outside as long as we can…even eating dinners outside.
(Oh I miss Meercat Manor!!)
I’ve always been glad that we don’t have cable – except when I watch cool nature or adventure shows at my moms – like Surviorman, or Meercat Manor.