television

Experiment: The Great TV Turn Off of 2009

Visiting with a dear friend, who unbeknownst to her always seems to ground me, the subject of television came up. I asked her how much television she lets her daughter watch. She began by saying 30 to 60 minutes.....and I thought, wow, 30 to 60 minutes a day is really good...but then she continued to say it was actually 30 to 60 minutes a WEEK! Wow. She is my hero.

I won't admit how much time our television is actually on and Eli has never sat through an entire show, as he plays the whole time. But nevertheless, I feel that it is on too much. Growing up, the television was always on in our house. And while in college and ever since, the television has a lulling effect for me just as background noise, let alone actually watching it. But with the commercials and their empty promises of the perfect everything, plus the scary images that adults may not think are scary, but Eli does, I have decided to drastically limit his television watching.

This is not to say that televison is from the devil. Any show Eli watches is educational and he has learned a ton (especially from Little Einsteins and their hieroglyphs!). In fact, you are hard pressed to find something for children that does not have educational value....very different from the days of Gummi Bears, Smurfs and Strawberry Shortcake. But I.....myself.....me.....I was feeling convicted about it long before my conversation with my friend. God used the conversation to slap me around a little and it worked.

So The Great TV Turn Off started on Monday and has been going well. Eli gets a smidge of programming in the morning and a smidge at night. There are tough times because Eli wants me to play with him all of the time and I feel a little stressed having to also be with Evie and thus pulled in two different directions. But there are more wonderful times, because Eli and I talk more, laugh more and so far, it is a blessing.