TV-Free for a Week (or more?)

You may be thinking I'm crazy right now!

But it's true-- I have decided that the first pioneer lifestyle practice I'm going to apply in our family is living without TV.  Pioneers didn't have it (it hadn't been invented yet...but that's beside the point), so there must be things we can do to entertain ourselves and our children without it, right?

Now I have to admit that I'm kinda cheating on this one because we've already partially implemented it.  But I figured it's okay because 1) it's a big one and probably the most extreme challenge for the average person (All down hill from here! = famous last words) 2)  I'm still planning out what "Little House Lifestyle" principles and practices I want to do and tackling this one gives me an extra week to get a better handle on things.

So background:

My husband and I decided a few years ago that we both had a natural inclination to keep our lives pretty simple. And it started with media--we just knew that we wanted to be careful about the type and content of media that we let into our home.  We're pretty careful to keep all our TV, movies, radio, video games, etc. on a G/ PG level--- for our kids and ourselves. 

Some may call it prudish, but we call it LOVELY!  

I don't miss it.  I feel like it's been a great benefit to our whole family.  And I think it's been a huge factor in getting us into the simple-living/ wholesome-living mindset.  After-all, "Little House Living" is a G-rated kind of living, don't you think? Full of wholesome goodness in so many ways! 

So we've been pretty good about filtering our media content. But we haven't cut out movies or TV entirely.   I am in the habit of letting our 2.5 year old watch about an hour of media a day, usually in the form of a DVD or Roku PBS program episodes.  It gives me a bit of a break from making sure she's not getting into something she should be staying out of (like toothpaste and chapstick, for example).  I'm sure you all know exactly what I'm talking about. 

But my goal is to try living a "Little House Lifestyle", and this is a great way to ring in the attempt. 

I have loved reading Little House on the Prairie and the many ways that the Ingalls and Wilder families (especially the children) occupied and entertained themselves.  They explored the outside, they played with rag dolls and paper dolls, they played instruments and danced and sang! And they loved it!

They're all such 'simple' activities--no electricity required-- but somehow they repeatedly held Laura's attention for hours.  So why not us? The pioneers weren't some other breed of human.  If they can entertain themselves without TV, so can I, right?!

I can at least try it for a week.

As an aside on the subject of cutting back on the media in our home:

Have you ever just sat in the quiet for a little while?  It's a little discomforting at first!  But it doesn't take long until you not only get used to it, but you get comfortable in a 'noiseless' environment.  By 'noiseless' I don't mean silent-- just quiet.  No radio, no TV, no phones vibrating, just the normal sounds of your home, or car, or wherever.

Doesn't it sometimes seem like we are so surrounded by audible and visual noise all the time that it's near impossible to actually get in tune with the little voice inside us that tells us we need to just slow down and enjoy the more important things around us? 

One of my favorite sounds to hear is the sound of our 2.5 year old as she comes out of her bedroom in the

morning.  There's a 'click' as I turn her door knob, a "MOM! I'm awake!", and a stampede of two little feet as she runs across the kitchen into the living room. It happens every morning, but I can't help but cherish that series of sounds! I hope there aren't any of those precious sounds that I've been missing because of all the 'noise' that fills the day.

Those are the sounds of 'home' that must have filled the pioneer days.  I can't wait to see what new sweet sounds I notice over the next week.

Now, I have a feeling that cutting out TV and movies for a week will be easier said than done, but we'll give it a shot.

So How Did We Do?

It's been 12 days of TV-free living and we are going strong! First funny thing to note here is that my husband read this post and said, "I had no idea the kids were watching an hour or more of TV a day!" We really weren't in the habit of watching it very often when he was home in the evening or on weekends, with the exception of the occasional movie/ tv date night, so I'm not surprised that he was surprised!  But that also having been said, you can probably imagine that most of the adjusting to keeping the TV turned off had to be done by myself and our oldest child. 

And, to be honest, said child did indeed ask to watch a movie many times throughout the first few days.  Determined to stick to our goal, I would reply with enthusiasm, "No, but let's do _____ instead!" We'd then do a craft, or go on a walk, or go to the store, etc.  At first, figuring out ways besides TV to occupy our little

ones felt like quite a bit of extra work (and stress) for me.  But I was pleasantly surprised that, after a few days of rehearsing "What would Caroline Ingalls do right now?", it got much easier to:

1. be patient 
2. come up with a suggestion for a toy or game or book or activity that she could do without my help 
3. find ways to incorporate her into the activity that I needed to get done, like unloading the dishwasher so I could finish a new load before dinner; cooking dinner; or folding laundry that had been sitting for days ready to be put away.  

There were definitely days when my best laid plans went completely out the window.  For example, last Thursday.  I was trying to meet a self-imposed deadline to put up a new blog post while my husband was at work.  What I quickly found was that Thursday was going to be a day when whatever computer work I was doing was going to be the most interesting thing in the world to our little girl and she would insist on putting her face between my face and the screen so that she could 'help'.  And as you will note, I did not get any kind of computer work done.  In fact, I just shut the computer and we all just played together instead.  And the house was a wreck the whole day!  But, though that wasn't my most 'productive' day, it was a day that felt great for all of us, I think.  My hunch is that the day would have felt less great if I'd given in and popped a movie on for a few hours of quiet.  Yes, I would have loved getting the post up 'on time', and our daughter would have thrilled at being able to watch a movie at long last!   But we would have all missed out on the fun we had that day, and putting up the blog post just didn't seem as important as taking the time to play.  

All in all, I consider our 12 days of living TV-free a great success! The plan for the future is to keep it up, with the exception of  family, or date, movie nights on occasion.  During the days, though, we'll continue to try and do things together as mom and kids!  More time to try new "Little House Lifestyle" adventures!

Want to try it too? Let me know how it goes by commenting below! 


© Allison T. and "Little House Lifestyle", 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Allison T. and "Little House Lifestyle" with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.