It’s hard to remember what initiated this feeling in me, this need to unplug our life a little bit. But suddenly I found myself ready and willing to put the TV away for an entire summer. We had become too dependent on it and it was becoming more of a bad habit than a special treat we genuinely enjoyed.
When my first-born was 15 months old and I had baby #2 already, the kid shows were a godsend! I knew the experts said that children should not watch TV until they were at least 2 but I was in survival mode. Those autoplay episodes of Curious George on Netflix were the only thing that seemed to pacify my very busy toddler long enough for me to sit down and complete a nursing session with the infant.
So, thus began our TV watching habit.
But how do you know when the line is crossed between an average TV watching habit to an addiction? Had my kids become addicted to TV?
I’m not sure. I do know that I think their daily intake of screen time was probably pretty common and average among most people. So I don’t think their daily consumption of TV was anything to completely freak out about.
Yet still, there was something about it that became icky for me. It did seem like maybe it was becoming too much. It was a way for me to distance myself from the chaos of the day. TV enabled me to do something other than focus on intentional time with my children. For those 1, 2, sometimes 3 hours of TV watching I had a mental break from it all.
Like I said earlier, when I had 2 under 2 (and then 3 who were 3 and under!) I’m thankful that our daily dose of shows got me through. That was a tough season. And at the time, Curious George was really fun for me to watch too. It was totally nostalgic.
But in this last year or so it wasn’t enjoyable anymore. I no longer liked the shows my kids wanted to watch. I would give in to the begging and whining and just go be on social media, do the dishes, cook food or call a friend while they watched their show.
Finally, I made a drastic decision. I talked to my hubby and I talked to the kids too and then I unplugged the TV and put it away in a closet for 100 days. From June 1st to September 8th we relearned how to live a life with no access to TV. We did have a couple cheat days and we did watch some youtube minimally but what we did was a drastic change from what had become the norm. In fact, if you want to read more about the rules we made and how we managed this, I wrote more about it on my personal blog.
I can’t begin to explain what a tremendously positive experience this was. I was scared. I felt crazy. I had a few hard days that I wanted to cave in SO BADLY. But I listened to my conscience and stuck with the plan. Here are the results:
My kids play more together. They initiate creative play more, they find things to do, they talk to each other more. Let’s be real though… they do fight too, but I don’t think they fight any more than they would with a TV in the house. In fact, I think they maybe even fight LESS simply because they are not fighting about what show or movie to watch!
The kids get bored and are learning what to do with their boredom. I think this is still a work in progress, and it probably will be for a long time. Here’s an example. One day I had a horrible night sleep (can’t remember why) and felt like a zombie all day. The weather was icky and it was just a bad day. The kids started begging me to just let them watch a movie. I wanted to say yes so badly because I had no energy to do anything else but lay on the couch with my eyes half opened. They begged. I did not respond. I was having inner conflict. Instead of committing to an answert I said, “Clean up the living room.” They thought I was telling them that if they cleaned up the living room they could watch TV. Boy, did they sure clean! I was impressed. I half fell asleep on the couch while they cleaned around me and you know what happened next? They forgot all about the TV and ended up playing in some make believe world and became totally engrossed in their play.
This entire experience was totally worth it for the magic that happened that one day. We’ve had lots of other positive outcomes from this too, like reading more books, having more time and focus on our homeschool work, being outside (like all the time because…well…it was summer!) and so much more.
I want to encourage you moms that it’s okay to utilize the amazing technology of shows and movies in our parenting journey. It can definitely be a blessing. But be aware of when, for you, it crosses the line from blessing to burden. I’m glad I finally realized it became a burden for us and took a step back. Our family is much more mentally and relationally healthy now.
Share in the comments if you’ve ever done something like this! If you want to try a period of time with no TV, no phone, no games, or whatever let me know! I would love to encourage you along the way.
