TV Free families, I have a question!

[heartmama]

We moved 6 weeks ago and made the decision not to unpack the tv. I talked about it with ds beforehand, and he agreed to give this a try. Dh agreed too (but IMO was a harder sell!).

The benefits have been profound, and immediate. The most startling was ds' sudden interest in reading and books. He actually *entertains himself* with a stack of books. He doesn't always actually read, but he finds them interesting, and does read the parts that get his attention. He has *NEVER EVER* done this before.

And we are all doing SO MUCH MORE together. It is unbelievable. I feel like we have stepped out of fog.

I could go on, but here is my one 'issue' where I need some input:

Ds still talks about t.v. shows constantly. He doesn't ask to watch them, but he recites entire episodes, and talks about characters to us several times a day. He always did this. But after 6 weeks, I am FREAKED OUT that he still does it! All the time!

How long will it take him to fully "detox"??And how could I not have seen beforehand (well, I guess I did see it) that we should have gotten rid of this attention sucking maching years ago???

I can't believe how much of his imagination revolves around tv shows. I can't believe I didn't free us from this thing long ago.

[fyrflymommy]

i really don't have an answer for you. my dd sometimes watches the tv with me (i'm slowly weaning myself from tv).

i can relate to reciting episodes and all that! i don't watch much tv, but i talk about stuff i used to/still do watch.

and it's so hard now cuz MY fave toys revolve around tv!
i still watch my little pony, care bears, etc.


i'd like to know about "detoxing" from the tv, also

[HotMama]

I can't help much. I've noticed that I can usually tell right off if a family has a TV because of this. I haven't had a TV for over 20 years, but I sing commercial jingles from way back when to my dd. People work hard to get their "stuff" to stick in our heads and it does.

Way to go killing the TV. I don't know when people find time to watch TV.

[heartmama]

Thank you. You are right, it is scary how long stuff from tv sticks in our heads. I can recite the theme songs to so many shows I haven't seen since I was a kid (Punky Brewster, Rocky Road).

I guess 6 weeks isn't so long after all.

[bestjob]

Our family is not TV free, but pretty darned close because I've always been very restrictive with the amount that the kids watch. I watch the news (not a lot of jingles there) and dh watches hockey and car racing. We've never had cable, and we only get one channel. We own about 10 videos.

Two things spring to mind... first, does your ds have access to easy to sing music other than jingles? We listen to children's music because it is easy to sing. For older children, Al Simmons is wonderful because his lyrics are sophisticated and his musical pallet is varied. A lot of popular music is really hard to sing, so children (and adults) get a bit discouraged. Actually, I see that in your OP you didn't ask about music. Oh well, I still recommend Al Simmons because he's just so darned fun.

As for stories, perhaps you can gently steer your ds to variations of the same stories. "What if he hadn't done that? What if he'd tried burying the treasure in the city instead?" or "Imagine what would have happened if you'd been part of that episode and you'd been the guy who'd saved the village from the dragon. What would your superhero costume have looked like?" Even if he doesn't answer you very coherently, you're planting the seed for him to imagine different things.

[khrisday]

My son can still- years after seeing them- recall excruciating details from TV shows and movies that he's watched. The other day we were at storytime, and he told the reader that the book she was reading had been on Between the Lions. Afterwards, she was asking me if that show hadn't replaced Reading Rainbow, and I said I didn't know because we haven't watched broadcast TV in several years.

[Sierra]

When our 15 year old foster/adoptive son came into our lives, he came from a house with a lot of tv. We are tv free. After 3-4 months of spending most of his time tv free (he wasn't living with us full-time yet), he stopped talking about tv shows as much. He still can remember a lot, but he is through processing it all it seems. Movies have been a lot more memerable for him. For example, some crazy person who had parented him at one time let him watch The Cell, and he is still freaked out by it.

Sierra

[heartmama]

Wow thank you all for the replies.

Tonight at dinner ds was going on nonstop about a Spongebob episode, to the point that I had to look out the window and say "Hey, what's that?". He said "The library..why did you ask me that?" I got him to talk about our surroundings and new address, and did he know our new phone number yet...etc...

But oh my goodness! He likes the humor of shows like Sponge bob. He thinks the show is hysterical, and he will go OVER AND OVER scenes that made him laugh. "Mommy Mr. Crabs gave Pearl a dollar and told her 'Go crazy.', and she said 'One dollar, you hate me!'. Mommy isn't that SO FUNNY!!" Um, yes, the first time it was dear. And he does these pitch perfect imitations of each character, and it IS funny, but not the umpteeth time.

Strangely, he has not asked for the t.v. at all really. He can still use gameboy one day a week, and he has the computer on other days, but it is nothing like t.v. It has never had the hold on his imagination that t.v. did. I'm not sure why. I guess the others are still "games" and ds is being himself when he interacts. But with t.v., it is about "the other characters" and you aren't involved at all.

I have bought some books on tape for him, and he likes that. He has a SpongeBob joke book, and he has learned a few on his own. But he is just now becoming an independent reader, and is still at a first grade level, so "reading for fun" doesn't extend to small print or chapter books yet (and that is how the joke book is done).

Good idea bestjob about changing the direction of the story for him. That might work. I'll try it!

Are there any online support groups for t.v. free families?

[captain optimism]

I don't think it's so terrible that he's continuing to hash out the plots of TV shows he's seen. In fact, it's kind of what he would do if you took him to a play. Maybe a little boring for you, but totally great for him. He's kind of learning about his culture this way.

There are two children in my community here who are now five. When they were younger, just three and four years old, one went to see Peter and the Wolf, and the other watched some videos for the first time. They had precisely the same reaction, recalling the lines from the stories, etc.. (Well, except that the boy who watched Peter and the Wolf used to act out the violence in the story!)

Maybe you could take him to a play? That would be fun!

[bestjob]

Something else that I forgot to mention is that retelling narratives is an important skill. Tell your son that, so that as he reads more, he thinks about the narrative in the stories. He might begin to tell you about new things.