Last week while I was catching up on some of the blogs that I regularly follow, I can across a post from on of my favorite bloggers Ali Edwards, where she mentioned that her family has decided to have a no-TV summer.
Come again?
A summer with no TV?
Are you mad?
Wait I LOVE that idea!
Over the past few months I have come to notice a subtle change in our family dynamic. We’ve started to move differently, we interact differently…we have started to become disconnected (almost) and I couldn’t put my finger on the what or the why this was happening. But after reading Ali’s post, I started to think…could it be technology that has gotten in our way and changed the way we interact with each other? More specifically I started to wonder what would happen to our family dynamic if we were to semi-disconnected from technology? I say semi-disconnect because I work from home and a computer is necessary or else momma don’t get paid. But aside from using technology to work, what would happen if we just turned it off?
Say for a week?
Okay what about 5 days?
I don’t know about you but as a family we watch entirely too much television. It’s the first thing we turn on in the morning, and it puts us to sleep at night. If the kids aren’t watching TV then they are playing video games and more than likely arguing over something stupid. (For those of you who have teenage boys, I’m sure you can feel my pain). Now knowing my family the way that I do, they would probably commit me to a mental institution if I proposed a summer with no-TV, but what about a week with no TV? Would they go for it? Would they even attempt to try? Would we even survive as a family or would we all drive each other mad?
Hummmm it’s worth finding out.
So last week, during dinner I suggested to my family that for 5 days, let’s turn the TV and video games off. Yep, you heard me. Turn them off. Instead of watching TV, let’s read a book (I’ve got at least 100 on my night stand waiting to be read), or we could play a game, go outside, take a dip in the pool, or we could just be still.
What do I expect to gain from this little experiment, you ask. Well to be honest with you I’m not quite sure. I would love to say that I hope our family will get a little closer and that our bond will be stronger, however removing the TV could have the opposite effect on us as a family. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Now let me finishing unplugging the TVs and gathering the remotes.
Carpe Diem 
I loved this post by Ali too and have no tv for a week during National No Tv week in April with my kids. It’s very hard for them and they get a little lost but we manage it. As I’ve gotten older the tv doesn’t interest me as much and I usually only have 3/4 shows a week to see. I get happy when the shows are over for the summer and gives me more time to enjoy the weather.
So when Ali suggested ALL SUMMER and all those comments came in saying they agree and that some of them grew up without tv and were happy about it. I thought what the heck let’s do this also. Well they wouldn’t hear of it, even tried 2 days a week without but then I forget or get lazy and they watch tv or play games. It’s not all day every day though, they have time limits on each. I still wish we were doing the NO TV thing though.
So how did it go for your family with no tv/games for 5 days, I’m curious to know, please???!!!
Hi Dawn, I knew that my family would probably disown me if I suggested a whole summer with no TV so I settled for just a week. Well, we didn’t make it the entire week, only 4 days. I think we could have gone the week had I planned it out better. I do think this is something that I am going to have to try again in the fall or possibly once a month.
Thanks for letting me know how it went. My family isn’t happy about it either when I suggest it for a week. We have done it for like 4/5 days a few times over the years, I guess it’s better then nothing though. Have a good day.