Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does—television, that is. One of the best decisions I made years ago for myself and for my family was to cut down on television drastically. At first this may seem like a daunting task, but with a few simple tips, parents find it’s much easier than they suspected it would be.
First of all, there is the matter of reducing the amount of TV your family watches to just a few shows a week. In order to do this, I recommend a family meeting to discuss your goals as a family and as individuals. Then take an honest look at what everyone is getting out of television. Everyone will agree that they should watch less TV and spend more time pursuing their own goals. With a meeting like this, your kids and spouse will be much more likely to go along with their new lifestyle of less TV because they’ll understand the reason behind it.
I highly recommend implementing a service such as TiVo ® to help keep TV watching to a minimum. After deciding on the reasons for watching less TV, each family member can decide on a handful of shows to watch together as a family, plus a personal favorite or two, to watch only during designated watching times—Friday nights or Sunday afternoons, for example.
Finally, come up with stimulating alternatives. Take the kids to the library or play board games. Have larger, longer family dinners at the table. Keeping everyone busy will get their minds off this missing element in their lives. I highly recommend using this time to get the kids to strengthen their reading skills and develop a strong interest in reading. Soon you might find that your family—gasp!—may prefer reading over watching TV.
Tina Turbin
Tags: Children, families, Family, family time, family tips, family togetherness, kids, Motherhood, Parents, television, tina turbin, tips
Rate this Article
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
About 5 years ago I got rid of our cable and TV was only for movie-watching on the weekends, and within WEEKS, my three kids’ grades turned around in school and they suddenly became so much sweeter to my hubby and me. Great post! Tks!
Good read, and so true! I come from a family of bigger readers and the TV is hardly ever on.
I turned off the TV about eight years ago. (Wowee, has it really been that long already???) Every once in a while I’ll catch a program at a friend’s house or my sister’s and I really just CAN’T BELIEVE the filth. Turning off the TV was once an excellent recommendation–now it’s really imperative that we turn off the TV for the sanity of our families.
I’ve come from your other website, http://dannythedragon.com, and just wanted to say thanks for all this great advice!
Yes, trips to the library are a wonderful way to distract kids from TV. I just came from http://dannythedragon.com, and I had no idea you were so active in helping families and children. We’re very lucky to have your voice. Speaking of which, I’ll be listening to your radio shows too!
I’m not surprised to hear this coming from an author! Yes, TV is just unbelievable these days–in a very bad way. My kids have never watched television in our home and they are just great, happy kids that don’t “act out” the nonsense they see on TV.
It always makes me smile when I hear positive messages like this. Thanks Tina!
Thanks Tina I’d like to hear more about this and children’s activities and games that can be played instead of watching tv.
The problem in my family is my husband and I are TV addicts ourselves, but we’re going to keep the TV off more now!
TV isn’t all bad. I think less TV isn’t going to hurt, though, that’s for sure! But you can pick and choose some good programs–they can be rather educational!
This is a great message for parents. We just rent TV show DVDs that we like and watch them on the weekend evenings. I think the next problem is going to be internet use. People will be saying, “Turn off the computer!”
I wish more people would have this perspective. I forgot the statistic, but isn’t it that the average child watches 6-8 hours of TV a day?
TV is truly a poisonous element in our culture and is degrading us as a civilization, in my opinion. The less TV, the better! It all starts with parents making the decision to not let television rule their family’s lives.
Oh, what an important thing to get across to families. TV will rot our kids minds! Let’s get them outside and active and reading.