On Thursday, I finally did something very brave. I chucked out the TV (actually, don’t tell Rowan this, but the TV is still in the loft - I wanted to find the remote control before I finally sell it/pass it on to the Oxfam shop). This was largely inspired by Rowan’s outburst of arguing and screaming fits on Thursday morning as I tried to get her to school, following a late and argumentative night that she spent watching the godawful “Celebrity Awards” on ITV.
So far, I’m really really glad I did it. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time: I feel that TV consumes far too much of our lives (to be honest, more Gill & the kids lives than mine, so I guess that’s rather mean of me, but all the same I know that when I watch it I get sucked in and addicted). I was also slightly prompted by recalling the Ray Bradbury story The Pedestrian a couple of days back and, after doing a quick Google for it, finding this page. I remember the story as being more about laziness in general, but reflecting on it I can now see that it was prompted by the insidious evil of TV.
Anyway, results so far have been very good. Rowan, predictably, kept breaking into weepy fits on Thursday night: I can understand and expected this, I guess she feels like she’s been bereaved, but I also think (hope) she’ll get over it. Her best complaint so far has been “now I can’t be in our band at school because I can’t watch CBeebies and make up joke songs based on all the programs’ theme tunes”. Lola took it a lot more calmly (yeah, get ‘em while they’re young). The conversation with her went something like this:
D: I’m getting rid of the TV.
L: But don’t do that. I like watching TV.
D: We’ll do other fun things instead.
L: Oh. OK.
She’s complained again a couple of times since (and I have to admit that the two programs I will miss most will probably be Big Cook Little Cook and Balamory. Oh, and Formula One) but she’s largely not bothered. We still have the projector and DVD player, so on special pre-arranged nights we can have movie time and schedule our own entertainment rather than be force-fed whatever crap the TV companies come up with. And since Thursday, we have done lots of going to the park, reading stories, making things, talking to one another, eating together, and generally all the things that are cool about being a family.
brave move!
my ex in London didn’t have a tv for a few years and when he moved in to a share house he still didn’t watch it. radio 4 and the occasional dvd was our source of entertainment if we needed it while round his. it was truely blissful!
a friend of his had thrown her tv out the window (she was on the first floor) and hadn’t looked back after (at last count i think it was) five years of being tv free.
formula one solution - see if a local pub might show it so you can watch it in a social environment instead of slumped on your own. or reading the results afterwards i guess is a (not quite so exciting) alteranative.
has rowan got a radio? ween her on to radio 4 or some other stimulating station if she feels like she’s missing out on the happenings of the world. she can make up theme tunes based on real world events and become the greatest lyric writer by the time she hits her teens.
well done. (oh, i owe you an email.. but have to go out to watch a band in the afternoon followed by the national rugby league grand final at a pub surrounded by mad fans).
I came across your site by accident a few weeks ago. I think I was doing a search on Cadair Idris or Wales or something.
Nice site.
Anyhow, it was one of the things that gave me the impetus to set up my own photo weblog.
See it here:
http://philje.fotopages.com/
Couple of points:
1. Dunno how you ever find time for TV. You must spend all of your spare time on the PC anyhow.
2. The vast majority of TV is absolute tripe!!! Simple as that. Stopping watching TV is not brave, it is essential for your mental health. I reckon I watch less than 4 hours per week. I would chuck mine out but my lad and wife would go berserk! even though they don’t watch a great deal. I reckon you should somehow convince them that what they are watching is absolute, brain-rotting shite rather than chucking the box out. You have carried out the ultimate in censorship, so to speak, Fahrenheit 451 style. Didn’t think this was your style.
3. Too much work related stuff. I am an ex Telecoms Consultant. No-one is really interested in the minutiae of D drives and all that technical drivel. Git some more photos up. Git some more opinions up. Sorry to hear ya lost all ya photies. WTF didn’t you back them up on an “inert” media????
We very rarely watch TV, although we own one. Last night I watched some TV for the first time in ages, and I discovered:
1. People on TV don’t look like real people.
2. They don’t act like real people.
3. TV programmes are nowhere near good enough.
These things might seem obvious, but it’s astonishing to me how much time and money go into making such a crap product. And people are addicted to this stuff. I’m going back to being a smug non-watcher.