Turn Off the TV, Already!!!

So, if you are a single parent and you have found your way here, you may be just as guilty as I am of something…letting the television babysit your kids! Now, it sometimes drives me insane to hear some kiddie show in the background while I’m working, but, hey, kiddo is happy and occupied, right? Maybe not as much as you may think!

Now, this story actually begins in the middle of last week. Neighbors reported a problem, cable guy came out, did something to the line, and said there would be a follow up call to re-run some of the lines. Now, other than being worried about how this was going to affect the speed of  my Internet, it sounded like there was nothing to worry about. The Internet was a little slow, but functional. But you should have seen how irritated my daughter was when she lipped the TV on – only to discover we only had <gasp> local programming!

Now, I mentioned that the TV noise has driven me crazy many, many times in the past. On some level, I knew that we had it on way too much, and that it was a distraction for me. Not so much in being tempted to watch it, just the noise from it. And the fact that on the same level, I knew I should be encouraging my daughter to do something other than just sit on the couch! Granted, we make regular trips to the library to stock up on books, but sometimes they only go so far. And we are just coming out of a really hard winter into an incredibly rainy spring, so I can only send her outside to play so much right now. 

But, I have to say, the differences I have noticed in the last few days are incredible!  Her attitude in general has improved. A lot. And, although it may be from sheer boredom sometimes, she is being much more helpful around the house, which makes my life soooo much easier! And, without the distraction from all the Disney shows & noise, I am working faster and better, which also gives me more time to actually spend with her. So, while I may miss a couple shows here and there, I think this may be worth making permanent! After all, unless you actually time how much you watch television, you can easily get sucked into a show, and next thing you know, it’s an hour later. Or, you needed to get some things done, told the kids they could watch just one show, and next thing you know the have been planted in front of it for hours. Not to mention, I’ll save a little money on the cable bill, too. Think that adds up to close to $500 per year. 

My point, basically, is this: if you turn off the tv, you can ind a lot of things work out so much better. You will be more focused, kids will be more active, you guys will get to spend more time together, and you will get to save money on top of all this! And, from what I understand, Americans spend up to 5 hours watching tv every day! That’s five hours to spend with your kids, do something productive to make some extra cash, and more than e time for you to do erelaxing! I mean, 35 hours a week? A full time job is 40 hours a week! So turn it off, and spend your time doing something better.