Why I Decided to Give Up TV

When I saw the line up of celebrities for this season's cast of Dancing with the Stars I was excited. It looks like such a great season. There are even celebrities I have heard of before - including Meryl Davis and Charlie White! Who wouldn't want to watch that? But just before the season premiere, I made a decision to stop watching TV, or at least seriously cut back on my TV time. I love DWTS, and I have watched every season since 2007, but I have decided not to follow this season - because of my daughter.


I used to have a lot of time to watch television. Growing up I rarely watched TV, but I started watching more in college, and continued after because I needed something to do while Jonathan studied in the evenings. Then I would get hooked on shows and need to know what was going to happen next. So I somehow found myself following 5 or more shows each week. That was when I knew it was getting to be too much. But I didn't really feel the need to change my habits until my little girl was born.

My decision to cut back on television comes down to these reasons.

1. When we watch, she watches. My little girl may only be 5 months old, but if the TV is on, she is fighting and craning her neck to see it. It is a constant battle to keep her entertained with other things if we're watching something, and it isn't one that I can fight every night. This leads me to reason number 2.
2. Screen time. Apparently, screen time is bad for kids and their brain development. I will not pretend that I know what studies have been done or how we know this, but pediatricians are recommending no screen time at all for children under 2 years old. I may not know why exactly this happens, but I know from experience that watching TV seriously changed my attention span. I used to be able to read for hours. I used to enjoy an occasional 4 hour movie. Now, if you can't tell me a story in 50 minutes, it's too long. And I need visual aids. I seriously mourn this loss of attention in myself. As a future homeschool family, it is so important to me that my children not have this attention span problem that I have developed. And I certainly don't want to have them watching TV every night for hours. So I am going to start modeling right now.
3. Nothing on TV is Appropriate. I know that right now Little Girl doesn't know what she's seeing, but I don't know exactly when inappropriate content is going to start affecting her. So better to stop now. Even if we found an acceptable show, the commercials all have their own agendas, and nothing on TV is appropriate for my children, in my opinion. (In fact, if we're being honest, very little of it is even appropriate for me as a Christian adult!)
4. Not Living on a TV Schedule. When I used to have shows that I followed multiple nights a week, I would hurry to get dinner done before they started, or stop everything at 7:59 and turn on the TV. It is very freeing to ignore the clock in the evenings. And it leaves more time for meaningful family interactions. 
5. Cable is Expensive. Right now we have no choice but to pay for cable. It is rolled into our rent. But I do not intend to have cable in my house when I'm raising my children. See #3 for the main reason why, but cost is also a factor. TV is a pretty costly habit! So I might as well get used to not having it now. (Jonathan is concerned about being able to watch sports, but we're going to figure that out down the line.) In my mind, there is no reason to pay for cable when you have kids. There are so many other better uses for that money and that time! 

Not watching TV to me does not mean that I give up watching all television shows forever. I like to watch Netflix and Hulu - there are some very clever shows out there that I don't want to miss - but with those I have the luxury of picking what time I use to watch and limiting commercials  I can watch a quick episode of Castle while my daughter naps, or go through a season of a good show with my husband during a school break, and that is fine with me. But I am determined to break the habit of spending the evening watching any channel's "primetime lineup." I will also emphasize watching TV with other people, not as something I do alone. Watching a TV show together can be a very social, fun thing to do for Jonathan and me, but watching it alone feels like a waste of time. It just doesn't feel like the right thing for my family any more. 

(But I think I should give myself one guilty pleasure exception, so I picked... Grey's Anatomy. Grey's is going to be my one hour, once a week treat. Because I don't like being legalistic about things, or maybe just because I love that show... I know it is completely inappropriate for children, but I promise I won't let my daughter watch it!)

This is still a new resolution for me, but I hope that I am able to hold myself accountable to limit television in my home. I am honestly very excited about all the free time I now have in the evenings! I thought it might feel like I was giving something up, but it's only been a few weeks and it already feels liberating.