The One Week No TV Challenge – A Final Update August 31, 2011

What did I learn from the 1 week No TV Challenge??

A few things I guess….

• I love my TV
• I can stream shows onto my laptop as long as no one else is on the internet…otherwise it’s a losing battle…So I did manage to get my GH fix last week, Thank GOD!!
• TV doesn’t affect my productivity, I’m just an unproductive person (Well not unproductive, I just like to put things off until the last possible minute)
• My kids are smarter than I am – I had no idea if Ryan found a remote for a Sony DVD player he could use said remote to control the Playstaion
• I’m more competitive than I previously thought…If someone hadn’t mentioned they didn’t think this experiment would last, I would have caved…but I can’t lose! 😉
• As much as I missed my TV, we pay a lot for cable, and we really only missed a few channels
• If you must attempt an experiment like this, don’t do the first week back to school. Mom’s need that week to be lazy and recover from #SummerVacayChaos #SummerVacayHell

Last night, after a long phone call with our TV provider [You can add channels online, but to cancel you have to call and talk to play 2o questions with a representative – Go figure], I cut down our package and we’ll be saving about $25 a month. The boys were super happy to have the TV back (and to know the DVR still did its job even when their mean mom banned the TV), and while I didn’t get to watch ANYTHING last night, I’m enjoying being a lazy butt and catching up my E! shows this morning. The TV’s not the problem, I just figure being a sahm I’m on mom-duty 24/7, and whether it’s being on call while they’re in school, playing chauffeur to doctors’ appointments, doing house stuff, or the real work that starts at 3:15 p.m. and continues until 7:30 a.m., so if I want to sit on my butt for a few hours every morning after I drop the kids off so be it. It’s my ‘off’ time, I get my stuff done…maybe only half assed, but done nonetheless, and so while TV’s not the problem, it is good to know we’ll be saving a few dollars cutting out unwatched channels.

So was our experiment a success, or a failure you ask? Neither really…just a TVless week…

 

The One Week No TV Family Challenge August 22, 2011

To some of you, I’m sure you’re thinking, ‘One week with no TV, what’s the big deal?’ For those of you who know me and my family IRL, I’m sure you’re jaw just hit the floor! We are TV junkies, the kids and I at least. That’s where the problem comes in, I’m addicted! No worse than your average TV junkie, but addicted nonetheless. TV’s are on 24/7 in our house, and we have electric and cable bills out the wazoo to prove it! With school starting this week, a to-do list that’s been avoided all summer, and a layer of summer funk on my floor that’s screaming to be scrubbed, we need to stay focused! Plus, this is a great experiment to see if we can maybe cut our cable down or out altogether.

The hope is that we, as a family, will spend the week focusing on what’s important and focus on getting back into the school year routine. I’m a huge believer on how you start something sets the tone for the duration. My thought is, while the boys are in school I can start the school year getting back into a productive routine. Lately I’ve taken my slackermomness to a whole new level and something has got to give! I’m not blaming the TV (notice we’re not giving up out I-phones lol, but more on that in a second…), but I am saying that since I became a stay at home preggo I’ve watched the same reruns (of the entire series) of Beverly Hills 90210, The OC, and One Tree Hill more times than I’d care to admit. As for the boys, their addiction to the DVR is more ridiculous than you could ever imagine.

Our plan is to stay TV free from today until Friday. When the boys get home from school Friday they can have the TV,  and maybe after a week of no cable they’ll be so excited they give their dad and I a little bit of a break (a mom can dream can’t she). We’re keeping the iPods, iPad’s for speech, the laptop, PS, and DVD player. So now you’re probably thinking with all that who cares about the TV? WE DO!!!! I’m not technologically inclined, we have limited iPod’s due to children’s shenanigans, and we have internet so slow you can’t watch a 2 minute YouTube video without delays, add everyone fighting for the internet connection and a limited DVD collection (also due to children’s shenanigans – not to point fingers or anything lol) and you get a hot mess. Plus I LOVE MY TV!!

I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going. I figure 1 of 5 things will happen:

1 – My genius plan is a success, my house is spotless, my kids get settled into the school routine, we realize we can survive without the TV, or at least as much of it,  and it’s an all-around Mom & Dad WIN!

2- We cave

3-We all kill each other because we’re going insane without PBS, Nick Toons, and General Hospital

4- The kids duct tape us to chairs until we cave

5- The plan is a success in the fact we are no longer TV addicts, but are now bigger iPod addicts than ever

Whatever the result, it should be interesting. Today hasn’t been so bad, we’ve watched DVD’s, played, mooched dinner off the g-parents, and had an all-around pretty good family day. I am dying to know what happened on Friday’s GH and this week’s Jereylicious though. So…we shall see….. I’ll keep you posted….

I have to admit, I have no idea where the no TV clip art came from. It’s from the boys picture books for speech. All our images come from 1 of 3 places – the speech therapist, Yahoo Images, or Google Images. My intent is not to steal…I swear!! I just have had this pic for a while and honestly am clueless as to where I got it..SORRY!!