On Wednesday afternoon Hannah was watching a DVD and I was working on dinner. She told me that the TV was broken, and I assumed the DVD was acting up. Wrong. The TV is toast. As in, it won’t turn on anymore. As in, it’s now nothing but an impractically large paper weight taking up a whole corner of the living room.
Our TV has long had a quirk of occasionally turning itself off. If we let it cool off for a minute or two, though, it always came right back on. Some research indicated that this was a weakness with our particular model. It can’t really be fixed, and eventually they fail completely. We decided to just wait until that time came, since TVs are only getting cheaper.
Our TV, permanently off
Of course, we didn’t anticipate exactly when the TV would breathe its last breath. And we certainly didn’t consider the possibility that it would occur when we have a busy preschooler and a new baby dividing our attention. Or during November when it’s rainy and dark and entertainment is at a premium. Really, it couldn’t come at a worse time. So, have we rushed off to the nearest electronics store, credit card in hand?
Hannah entertained herself by building a ‘pig house’
In fact, we have decided to take some time and see what it’s like to be a TV free family. While it can be a useful tool when you want to entertain your kid, it’s not without its problems. Hannah frequently melts down when it’s time to turn off the TV. Some of the messages Hannah gets from her favourite shows are questionable at best (cough Disney princesses cough). And all of us plug in to the TV instead of interacting with each other or being active.
An autumn sunset outside the library
It’s been more than 48 hours since the TV turned itself off. How has it gone so far? Actually, better than I expected. No TV means no TV battles with Hannah. This alone is worth it. But we’re also interacting with the kiddo, but she’s finding other activities for herself. We’ve been listening to music, and Jon and I are having conversations. There’s a lot that’s positive.
Visiting Dad’s office and buying magazines for Mom
On the other hand, I do miss it. I’m spending a lot of time at home alone with Jacob right now. I love him to bits, but he’s not the most engaging conversationalist. I like the mindless entertainment of TV while he nurses. Today I got myself a big pile of magazines as a substitute, we’ll see how that works out. As for Jon, he’s disappointed when he can’t watch his Canucks games. Of course, he works in TV so he’s not exactly giving it up completely.
We saw this at the book store – it’s apparently from the Twilight series 
For right now, we’re viewing the next couple of weeks as an experiment. Who knows? Maybe we will join the ranks of those who eschew TV by choice rather than by technological failure. Getting rid of cable would certainly save us some money. Or maybe we will run screaming into Best Buy before the weekend’s over. I’ll keep you updated on what we decide.
Cute blog! Great idea to try out being tv-free. We canceled our TV a while ago – keep in mind we don’t have kids – but we do cheat by subscribing to a newsgroup, so we can download our favorite programs. However, I watch substantially less TV now – I would say 2 or 3 shows a week – (like Debt Do Us Part!) and no commercials, and no mindless channel surfing! I find I have lots of other enjoyable activities to fill my spare time… blogging, baking, reading, etc. Glad to hear that your daughter seems to already have adjusted to the change! Let us know if you decide to replace the TV!