Cable Free--A Good First Step

[umsami]

Well, for those of you who just can't make the jump to TV-free, I highly recommend going cable free (or getting only the local channels). We've been this way for over a month, and everybody's TV viewing has gone down considerably. PBS only shows kid shows a few hours a day.... so it's not like they can sit like zombies in front of Noggin. Even with those few hours, our kids are down to maybe 30-60 minutes of TV/day down from many many hours.

So, give it a try

[Savoir Faire]

That's what we did-- I highly enjoy going WITHOUT ALL. that way, no temptation to get caught in "who is smarter than a preschooler."

My family is always SHOCKED when I say "no channels. No nothing." They're like WHERE DO YOU SEE THE NEWS?

I try to explain we pick up a bit of reception from our tin foil hats, but the rest is from the 'net.

[Theia]

We did this too. We only had basic cable for the past year and we shut that off recently. Now we are down to only movies from Netflix and a local place that has lots of good, non-violent type movies. I am sure we will continue with movies, DP is Hindu so we watch a few bollywood movies in between other movies, so the TV is staying. Would we qualify as TV-free if we bought a projector and viewed movies that way?

[Twinklefae]

We tried to go cable free... but it didn't work! We aren't paying for cable any more but oddly enough still get half the channels. We do watch a lot less TV than we did before (especially me, as they aren't the channels I watched) but we still watch more than I would like. (Especially Family Guy, I worry that DS is getting too old to be in the room when it's on.)

We're getting there though.

[Baby Makes 4]

Over several years of experimenting we have found a good balance for us. We get cable from October-March and go completely channel-free the rest of the year. Because we are used to not having the channels most of the time we are not in the habit of watching mindless TV. Some days we don't watch anything and other days my 13yo DS will watch Iron Chef and my 3yo DS will watch Super Why.

[Savoir Faire]

So funny....our worst months are the summer months, so we tend to watch more tv during those. October to March are the months when we watch less because we can go outside!

[sarmis35]

I just cancelled my cable due to financial reasons. I have been wanting to go tv-free or at least cut it down for a long time but I am an addict. It was the lack of funds that made it a must for us. We are planning to still watch movies from the library.

[cam&kat's_mom]

Glad to see this thread. we are droppign cable (well down to basic) since we have no natenna to get regular free tv,... the kids arent thrilled but i am.. $60 a month savings!

[Jade2561]

We also don't have cable and we don't have any movies out. We rent a family movie of Saturday's so we are down to 1 hr to 90 minutes of TV a week for the kids.

[jamsmama]

My husband really wanted a new truck and I was against it because of financial reason. He called me from work the other day and said "what if we cut off the DirectTV." I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I've been wanting to get rid of it for 3 years now.
I totally fell into letting my DS watch tv for about 30 minutes a day and it has turned into program after program.....especially when I'm trying to get something done (work, dinner, putting DD down for nap). It has become such a nasty bad habit and I feel like my child is suffering because of it. Not outwardly, but unstructured play would be so much better for him. It's just become too easy and I'm super excited to cut off the tv! I'm going to have to get really creative!

[lincap]

This is what we just did! Got rid of cable.

DS1 started watching TV last december when I was in my 3rd trimester and he was 25 months old. He now loves his "shows". So slowly we are weaning the TV. Got rid of cable so all we have is PBS kids shows during the day and DVDs.

I am at this forum to get the motiviation to really limit and hopefully eliminate TV from DS1. I don't mind the occassional movie... but right now it is just too much.

My goals are to gradually limit... offer other activities... and not eat in front of the tv... DS1 usually eats lunch while watching a show....