Too Much TV.

As you all know, I’ve drastically cut back the amount of TV services we have coming into our house.  We have Netflix now, and a very basic cable package.  We rent a dvd or two from Redbox once in a blue moon.  But I never really thought about HOW much TV we watch.  I thought cutting the cable was a good enough.  But then I realized that my kids were STILL watching A LOT.  Granted, the content they are allowed to watch is highly restricted, but I noticed they were spending more time than reasonable in front of our TV watching said content.  

Don’t get me wrong.  Our TV is AWESOME.  We paid enough for it, so I guess it should be.  It makes movies POP.  It’s HUGE.  Well, huge for us.  All our previous TVs had been hand-me-downs; the largest of which was a 32 inch Sony Trinitron that required a furniture dolly and two grown men to move.  Needless to say, our current TV blows everything out of the water, and we LOVE using it.  I guess that explains WHY we use it so much. 

But we’ve all heard about the studies.  We all know that too much TV is NOT a good thing.  Here’s a pretty informative video that shows the science behind why little ones shouldn’t get over-stimulated.  When I saw this I immediately thought of my kiddos, and I think it is a must see for parents of young children. 

 

So last night, we didn’t watch anything. 

That’s right.  I kept the TV off until right before bed (Xander watches until he falls to sleep, but I’m going to wean him from that, too.)  What did we do instead, you ask? We did art projects.  I cleaned out the kids’ activity chest and reorganized it.  Megan and I made “activity cards” that listed alternatives to watching TV, and we had a lot of fun coming up with things to do.  I wrote the descriptions; she drew the pictures.  It was awesome, and Megan went to bed happy.  Can’t beat that!

So, I think I’m going to cut the TV crap for my kiddos.  They’ll watch it occasionally, but I don’t think I’m going to let it babysit them any longer.  This is something I should have done from the get-go, but work schedules being what they were, TV helped us get by.  Now I’m saying enough.

I’d love to hear what you guys do or don’t do about TV.  Sound off!