Turn off the TV!!!

First before I start this post let me make it clear that I am not saying it is wrong to have, watch, own, or use a TV. What I am posting is situations in my own personal family life and how they have affected us and what we did or think about them.

Since my hubby and I married we have never ever had cable or satellite TV. We have no use for these services, we get our news and weather off the internet, that is all we really need, to us the other channels would be extra and that is just an extra expense we can't afford. The internet serves us in several ways, we can talk with family far away, get our news and weather and most importantly my husband does his work thru it, he is building his own business.

Now with all that said we still have a TV and a DVD/VCR player. We have a really good collection of movies, I am a big western fan (John Wayne is the best) and comedy fan (older), of course my hubby loves war movies (what man doesn't) he also enjoys some comedy and then of course we have movies for the kids. From Disney to Thomas the Train, we have lots of educational moves National Georgraphic is one of my oldest favoriates, and we of course have girl movies for the little girl that runs around her, she has discovered Barbie and she loves it.
Anyway we have lots of intertainment.

Now we always said that we will not have our children watching to much TV. And I guess considering how much most kids watch TV, our children didn't watch that much. However I got to noticing some problems and I decided to figure out what was going on.

Our children do not watch movies that have bad lanuage or anything in them. Most of their movies are educational with a few that are just plain fun kids movies. Ask my family I am big on what kind of cartoons I let them watch. Some of these newer movies don't have the values I like or there is a hidden message in there that I don't want my kids getting, so I will not allow them to watch these movies or shows. Sponge Bob is one of them. I do not like that cartoon, I would not allow my children going around saying or doing those things so I do not allow them to watch it, that is just one example there are a few more. Anyway back on topic, like I said hubby and I only allowed our children to watch movies about 1 hour maybe 2 on some days. My kids like playing outside a lot and after chores and school that is what they usually do.

However we got into a bad habit, the winter was long here this past year and I got to letting them watch more movies after school. Winter turned to spring, spring turned to a very hot summer and now we are almost at fall. A couple of weeks ago I realized that my children had went from doing what I ask them to do the moment I asked it, to waiting five or ten minutes to pick up one toy. Why I ask myself, then I saw it, they were to busy watching the TV. That did it, the TV was turned off.

TV is okay but we (when I say we I am talking about hubby and I) can't let it get out of hand. Now the TV is not turned on until later in the evening if at all. The most they are allowed to watch it is 1 hour a day and they must all agree on the movie. Weekends may be a little more if we are watching a family movie that is longer than 1 hour.

Now the peace that has entered our home is awesome. My kids are big book readers, now they are even bigger book readers. I have wonderful art covering my fridge door and their imaginations are soaring higher than I ever thought they would (they have some big imaginations before).

So if you want a nice quiet peaceful home, maybe you have one but one an even quieter, peaceful home, maybe you should just turn off the TV!

Have a blessed day!