I don't know if you remember, but a while ago I wrote a post about some changes I was making in our home to make time for the most important things. If you happen to want to peruse it, it can be found here. As a continuation of one of those goals (limiting our time with our electronic friends), I proposed to Rob that we give up television for a year so our family would spend more time doing quality activities together. I asked him to think about it for a while and get back to me. He wasn't ready for so drastic a change, so we compromised and came up with a plan that has been working successfully for our family for 5 or 6 weeks now.
Our family keeps the television off Monday through Thursday every week*. We can watch movies (or TV) on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Mondays through Thursdays have been really nice because we are spending more time playing games and talking and the kids aren't doing their homework with the TV on in the background, we're getting to bed earlier and we're even finding more time for reading! It has made it easier to accomplish some of my other goals listed in the aforementioned post.
There are certainly times when we would like to watch something (like when our favorite program is on), but for the most part it has been a great change for us. We look forward to Friday night (the children proclaimed it 'Movie Night'), and we really consider what we're going to watch because our screen time is limited.
Next up: getting rid of the DS!
*Exception: Avery watches a video sometimes during the day when I need to get something done.
