change #2

The Second Change (see previous post if you want to know what I am talking about):
February is "No T.V. Month"
What?! Well....let me explain...
So we are not really huge T.V. watchers. Neither Scott nor I grew up watching a lot of television, so luckily this was something that was easy to agree on when we got married. Well, as children have come we (meaning I) have found it to be pretty easy to use the T.V. as a babysitter. Occasionally I don't really see this as a problem...the problem is that my children were constantly begging to watch something; especially Davie and that bothered me. No two-year-old should know so much about Dora, Diego, and Dinosaurs (he loves Dinosaur Train, which incidentally I do too...I think it is a pretty interesting show).

Just to give a little more background, we already had a rule in the house that Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays were "No T.V. days"...there is a reason for each of those days; Saturdays are supposed to be a fun day off...days off shouldn't be spent sitting on the couch, they should be spent running and playing. Sunday is the Sabbath and we feel like unless it is "Mr. Kruger's Christmas" (a personal favorite) then the T.V. should stay off. Tues and Thurs were just a nice way to get a break from the noise mid-week. So, already the television wasn't on four of the seven days a week, which was awesome, except that on those other three days there were nothing but begging, and then fighting all.the.time! It was driving me nuts. So couple that with the aforementioned problem with Davie the T.V.-junkie and I decided a change needed to occur.

Introducing the experiment....Early in January the thought struck me about taking a month off from the television. I wondered if we could do. I wondered if I would go crazy. I wondered how it would affect our home. There were lots of things I wondered. So I mentioned the idea to Scott...he liked it. I mentioned it to the kids...they maybe weren't as jubilant as Scott. Then I mentioned that there would be a reward if were successful. There spirits were lifted. Sometimes I feel bad for kids...here, they are born to two crazy people, who decide to do crazy things, and whether they like it or not we do them and make them do them with us. I think that would have frustrated me as a child, but I don't really remember, so clearly I got over it. I digress. Anyway, we (again, I) decided we would do it in February. How hard would it be? At least I picked the shortest month. Also, this only meant the T.V. in our house - Lily was worried that if her teacher showed a program in school then she would get in trouble if she wasn't allowed to watch it. I thought that was funny. No, it just meant in our house.

The first couple days were the hardest (and not even that hard to be honest with you). Seriously within four days there was no complaining or whining about it. When the kids asked to watch something all I'd say is, "It is a no-T.V. day, remember." and that was that! Even Davie. Amazing! So let me tell you about the results: I may never turn the T.V. on again! My home has been so much more peaceful. The kids don't fight as much...seriously. They look at books more. They listen to music with me and ask questions about it (I love that and didn't expect that). They play with the toys and imagine things more. Grace and Davie interact in such a positive way; they have become such buddies. They color and paint more. We talk more and I really like it. It has been WONDERFUL! The only downside...my house is a lot messier; after all, I don't have the T.V. on to distract them, so they are busy making messes. I am okay with it though because they are good messes. They are messes that show me that little brains have been working and creating and I like it. Plus I have tried to mellow out about the house looking perfect at all times.

Our month is coming to an end here tomorrow and Scott and I have talked a lot about what our next move is regarding the T.V. We don't want to ruin a good thing. We have decided that we will just have one T.V. day a week and that will be Friday. It seems to make the most sense. So that is the big change around here. I have been so proud of the kids because of what champs they have been this month.

The sign on the television.

What do you think? Is this something you would do?