Talk to me about going TV-free w/an older child

[Shonahsmom]

DD is 8 1/2. We don't have cable and have been thinking about getting rid of the TV altogether. The only channel ANY of us watch is PBS. DD probably watches around 30 minutes a day of TV on average.

Recently DD has started to campaign for cable. We are NOT getting cable and DP and I are seriously discussing being TV-free (both of us have, at various points been TV-free and enjoyed it).

The thing that I worry about is that dd gets really excited about visiting friends or cousins that have cable (and video game systems which we also don't have). I worry that as she gets older, she'll really prefer being at friends houses who have these things and will always be clamoring to be away from home. As she becomes a teenager, I'd like to be the home where her friends like to come and hang out, but I'm worried friends won't want to have sleep overs and such at a TV-free home.

So, talk to me about being TV-free with older children, tweens and teens.

[suziek]

Great question. We don't have video or computer games either, and my boys love what little they have seen of them. We want our home to be the one in the neighborhood the kids chose to hang out in, especially as they get older. We have a great work out space, so my Dh thinks that will attract other kids here when our oldest are teenagers. But I'm not so optimistic. I'm curious to learn how this hass played out with older kids too.

Anyone?

[lifeguard]

What I know is from my own experience. We never had cable & as a teenager one of the main reasons I liked to babysit is that after the children I was watching went to sleep I could watch cable tv. It was a MUCH bigger deal for my brother.

[fork]

I never had cable or video games either as a jr.high/early highschool kid and I always opted to go to someone else house. They had cable and video games :-) My parents let up on the restrictions in about 11th grade, and the habit of going elseware still stuck. We had lots of "fun stuff" at my house, work out equiptment, a huge backyard to pay sports/games in, etc. Of course every kid is diffrent, but I can't imagine most teens wanting to hang out regularly where there was no access to video games or movies.

ETA: I should add that a lot of the time spent at my friends house was doing something not at all related to TV or video games. We used to listen to music and draw for hours. Just having the option of being able to have some tv or video games *incase* we wanted to use them was good enough for me.