How We (Almost) Gave Up TV

Aaahhh, TV. You fill my eyes with your wonderful pictures and tickle my ears with your sweet sounds. Yes, I admit it. I’m a TV addict.

It’s always been like this – I grew up watching hours and hours of TV while my homework went undone. Into adulthood I would sit there for at least 5 hours per day watching whatever happened to be on – which most times was a rerun of a show I’d seen 3 times before. I would be bored eating dinner at the table and would much prefer eating on the couch while watching TV.

That all changed in 2004 through a Horrific TV Smashing Incident.

The Horrific TV Smashing Incident.

In 2004 I gladly accepted a laser pointer as a gift for attending a seminar. I soon discovered that our 70lb Labrador Retriever (pictured above) absolutely LOVED that laser pointer. She would chase the red dot like a crazed frothing maniac. She chased after it down the hallway just to get to the end of the hallway and realize that the red dot had reversed directions and was heading back the other way. This was great fun.

The problem that none of us foresaw was that the TV was situated in the living room…at the end of the hallway directly in the path of that crazed frothing maniac. “Little” Maddie was running a bit too fast and so could not stop in time before doing a beautiful side check of the TV stand. Like a felled tree the TV slowly tilted forward and dropped 3 feet right onto its face. (Maddie was unharmed and had turned around to see what the bang was all about).

And that was it. The TV was dead. It happened at a time when we were flat broke and so we didn’t get a replacement TV for about 4 months.

What We Discovered.

It’s Eerily Quiet. If you leave the TV on it can provide background noise. Without the background sounds we actually found ourselves feeling alone. Playing music in the background helped make our home feel alive again. (I would imagine this would be less of an issue now with our kids always providing ample background sounds.)

Withdrawal. While you’re in the middle of a series you feel like you’re losing out when you can’t continue watching. During the first couple of weeks this was a real bummer but after the initial withdrawal ended I found I could care a less about the entire series.

Free Time. We always had the running complaint that there was never enough time to do things. After The Horrific TV Smashing Incident we suddenly found ourselves with at least 30 hours of free time a week. That’s a lot of time to have on your hands all of a sudden so you find yourself bored with nothing to do.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions. Watching TV is a passive activity. You sit down, pop it on, and tune out. Occasionally you’ll have to make a decision as to what to watch next but these decisions are few and far between. Without TV you’ll have to decide what you’re going to do with all those extra hours you now have on your hands.

Today

Fast forward to today and we have a new TV mounted on the wall out of reach of crazed frothing maniacs (we actually have 2 Golden Lab Retrievers) but we don’t watch it that much. We have a few shows which we record and then watch later – House, Smallville, 90210 (I can’t believe I just admitted that in public), and Survivor. That’s it. In total, it probably consumes around 3 1/2 hours per week but we watch it on our terms when the kids are in bed. I steadfastly refuse to watch live TV while at home. I know that I would fall back into my old habits and get sucked into just sitting there for hours on end.

My Suggestions

Have an Alternative. What will you do with all the free time you have on your hands if you give up TV? You’ll catch up on a lot of projects and TODO lists but you can burn out by working all the time. You need something that you can do that you will enjoy spending hours and hours on. For us, spending as much time with our kids and each other are our priorities. We also found working on this blog and reading ones that are similar to be quite rewarding.

Limit Recorded Shows. At one time we had a fancy PVR/DVR/Tivo (or whatever you want to call it) that was programmed to load a ton of different shows and movies. We would routinely have to purge shows because we had hit the upper limit of 40 hours worth of recorded TV that we had recorded. Instead just record the shows you truly enjoy and love. Forget the rest.

Avoid Watching Live TV. Can you just watch 1 show and then turn the TV off? Or will you end up spending the next few hours watching shows you’ve already seen? Or spending 2 hours watching TV to “kill time” until the real show you’re wanting to watch comes on? Admittedly there are some shows better watched live but record the ones you can and watch them later.

Don’t give up your young healthy years sitting in front of a TV. Soon enough you’ll be old, soon enough you may lose your health. Leave the TV for those years. Right now: Get up. Get out. Go and live your life!

See also:

My Family Rules! 5 Rituals To Establish a Close Knit Family

Don’t Wait Their Little Lives Away