photo by JayGirlsMom
What about for a week?
Well, in support of Turn OFF Your TV Week April 20-26, I'm going to give it a try. My husband is already complaining about his desperate need to see the NBA playoffs (and, okay, maybe we'll make an exception there for him). But I'm going to try not to make an exception for Noggin, the news or anything in between. With the television off, our family will inevitably spend more quality time together and that's the whole friggin' point.
Conversation, music, laughter--remember that stuff?
I can see how turning the television off, even for a day, is a powerful way to show children that placing too much value on TV is overrated. If you need more convincing, screentime.org has some startling facts about the TV habits of Americans and their effect on children. Pretty unbelievable stuff...
- Average time per week that the American child ages 2-17 spends watching television: 19 hours, 40 minutes
- Number of violent acts the average American child sees on TV by age 18: 200,000
- Percentage of children polled who said they felt "upset" or "scared"by violence on television: 91
- Number of TV commercials viewed by American children a year: 20,000
- Number of ads aired for "junk food" during four hours of Saturday morning cartoons: 202
- Percentage of children ages 8-16 who have a TV in their bedroom: 56
- Chance that an American parent requires children to do their homework before watching TV: 1 in 12
- Percentage of total television time that children older than 7 spend without their parents: 95
- Percentage of children 8 and up who have no rules about watching TV: 61
- Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900
- Hours per year the average American youth watched television: 1,023
Truth time! Does your family watch too much TV? Could you turn your TV off for a day, a week, a month?!
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Comments 16
yeah i can do it....i have a dvr lol...seriously speaking i only have two nights out of a week that i watch television. it's the kids that would suffer
YES!! The only TV I have in my house is in my kids bedroom and it's hardly every on. So we hardly ever watch TV. It's never really been that important. I think we communicate as a family better, without the TV
I'm so anal about the TV. I HATE it! I make excuses to turn it off. I throw the kids out. I just tell them no, get outside and exercise. We will not be having TV on after 7p.m. anymore because the kids don't pick up after themselves if it is on. So that leaves from the time they finish homework until dinner to try to squeeze in and turn it on(provided I don't throw them out) and about an hour after dinner. I'm so mean! Our house only has one TV and I don't care if someone gives them one, it's not going in their room.
I used to be really anal about the tv being off but when I got pregnant with my second, I was so sick I couldn't get off the couch. Then, we all started watching a lot of TV.
NOW, I have the TV on for background noise but even the kids don't sit down to watch it. It still concerns me, though, because the mind needs quiet time and having background noise all the time, I think, can have a big imact on your health and psyche.
My husband is a freak about the TV and other media. he has the TV, radio, Ipod, on all at the same time and will be playing on the computer, too. he drives me NUTS!
The only thing I would miss about the tv are my two favorite shows and sometimes, I keep it on when my insomnia is really bad so I don't feel weird being up so late at night all by myself.
But I still think we could do it.
Oh! But I need webaccess for school and I log in every day, so I couldn't go without that!
yes, I rarely watch TV anyway. My husband on the other hand... he'd have a very hard time filling his day otherwise.
I can totally do it. I usually have it one for background noise and my son watches Noggin. But, we also like to tune into pandora.com and listen to music. We dance and dance.
Totally doable!
I'm gonna pass.
I could care less about TV. But I use it for 2 or 3 minute babysitting throughout the day. For instance when I need to potty (you know..the longer potty) or run downstairs for something.
We probably watch too much(according to others anyway).
Frankly, I wouldnt turn my tv off. I might turn it to some music channels(we have sirius on our tv) but turn it off completely, nope. I like the noise.
we, my son and i, do not watch tv monday thru thursday (school nights) and i am sure if i impressed upon him no tv on the weekends he would be fine until his dad arrived; he watches tv every morning before he goes to work, when he comes home from work and soccer games...ugh...lol.
We watch maybe two hours of TV a week here, so turning it off wouldn't be a big loss here.