Thursday
TV free home vs Olympics
We don't watch TV... ever... it's lovely!
We do watch DVD's and love knowing what we (and our children) are about to watch, that there will be no ads, and that we can really think about what we watch before we decide to put in a DVD, rather than just turning on the TV when we feel bored and watching whatever happens to be on.
This has been our way of life for the past 6 years as we just feel that TV does not enhance any aspect of our lives, particularly at this point with 4 young children and no spare time!
I do quite enjoy watching the Olympics... when I was a kid, we didn't have TV either, but my parents would always hire one for a month or so every 4 years just to watch the Olympics (very sporting family), but now I could easily just not watch any of it at all... we didn't watch the last Olympics.
Our little dilemma is that we got a note home from school recently that asked us to please watch the opening ceremony with our child, and some of the games, as they will be discussing it in class this term. They have also asked if we could possibly keep a tally of medal results each night, so now we are wondering if we should get TV in our home so that our children will not be missing out on anything at school.
We do actually have a TV. It's a 20 year old unit donated by Nanna which lives in a wooden box with doors that we keep closed, and it is only used for viewing DVD's.
We have just never plugged it in to the wall to get TV reception and conveniently, our current house doesn't even have reception. If we did want to watch TV, we would have to buy some kind of adaptor.
Now we are considering going out and buying this special adaptor thing that we would have to plug in the wall to get reception here.
The only problem is, if we do that then we will technically no longer be a "tv free house" and our concern is that we will get sucked in to sneaking it out for "important" or "very interesting and educational" things and then just start watching it everyday and lose our current lifestyle (concerned about my own discipline in this area...lol).
Other options we are considering include going to friend's house to watch the opening ceremony or maybe asking Grandma to tape it for us.
We'll see how we go... Is anyone else in this situation?
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my dear i admire your strength to have a tv free house. I think that I wuold be alot more stress free if i didnt have it in our house...however my hubby was brought up in a tv free house and doesnt ever want to go back to that!!! sorry this little chicki has no advice just admiration....love reading your blog...you must be a super mum..I think 2 are enough work at times..
ReplyDeleteIf it were me, I think I would just have someone tape it...that way you don't have to worry about backsliding!
ReplyDeleteI share your worries! We have TV in our home. It does become addicting once and while. I find when I'm watching too much I pray and ask God to direct my attention else where.
ReplyDeleteHope you and your family can find direction. You could watch it on the internet maybe??
I wish we didn't watch as much TV as we do. But at least most of the time we're watching the National Geographic and History and Discovery channels, but still. I say great for you for having a TV-free household and I think it's kinda nuts that a school would require students to watch TV. I've never been that into the Olympics either. I'm sure you can get the medal tallies on the Internet, so I say get someone to tape the opening ceremonies rather than rearranging your life for the Olympics.
ReplyDeleteHey Ruth. Thanks for visiting By His Grace. I love making new friends.
ReplyDeleteAs for the TV issue. It's all about discipline. We have a TV in our home, but we strictly limit the amount of time that it is on. My kids can watch 30 minutes a day, if they earn it and then it is something that I approve of, usually a video of some sort. My hubby and I also limit our TV watching. I have Scripture posted all over the TV and any time I am tempted to just veg out in front of it, well, let's just say I am convicted by the Word.
On another note... I love the picture at the top of your blog. I just started going through Psalm 23on "Psalm Friday" and when I saw the picture that immediately came to mind. Love it.
Well, friend I must be off. Have a blessed day.
Jenifer
Hi Ruth!
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to "meet" you. I'm very surprised that a school would require tv watching as homework. We had not watched tv other than dvd's for years until we recently got "a deal" on dish network. For the short time that we had it, I was amazed at how easy it was to get sucked in to hours of viewing. Although I did pretty well with not letting my almost 2 year old watch it, we finally decided it was eating up too much evening family time and cancelled it even though we had several months left on our contract. No regrets! Is it possible to speak with the school about your dilema?
Isn't amazing how much more you can get accomplished when tv doesn't become an every day thing.
ReplyDeleteWhen we lived in Germany we never watched tv and we did a lot more as a family, it was really great.
I admire you and your tv free home. Much less worry and fuss that way!!
ReplyDeleteI agree - have someone else tape it. That way you won't have to worry about watching when it's not something you really want to do!! I can't wait for the Olympics though . . . I love them!!
Puh-shaw!!! No TV????? What would I do without Noggin or TLC???? Yoiks!! :)
ReplyDeleteActually, my hubby and I were JUST talking about getting rid of cable. It's waaaaay too easy to just flip it on and watch whatever. There ARE some really worthwhile programs, and like the Olympics, current events that it's nice to keep up with.
So...we'll be watching the Olympics!! But one of these days, maybe we'll have the guts to cut the cable. We'll see!! Good for you, though!! Hope you get to see what you want!!
Definitely go the internet for daily medal tallies Ruthie. This link is good, it tells you who got each medal for the day and the whole Olympics so far. Just click on each medal tally to see this info :-)
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/5b6adp