And so it begins...

This blog has been created to document a momentous change in our household. We have done something many American families would never dream of. We cancelled our cable. We have no television. Well, we have a television that will play DVDs but we have no channels. Turn it on and you get fuzz. No MTV. No ESPN. No CNN. Nothing, nada, zilch.

Why did we do this? This blog attempts the explanation...and in the coming 30 days I'll chronicle what happens in our house during this televisionless month. It may turn into a televisionless forever. Or, October 1st we may be shaking as we call the cable guy begging him to reconnect us.

About us: We are a young, upper middle class family living in a nice suburb of San Francisco. My husband works and I stay home with our 3-year-old and 4-month-old daughters. We have a 3+ bedroom house and a yard. My husband has a PhD and I have two Masters degrees. Okay. So here goes.

This all started because we went on vacation to a televisionless place. We just got back this afternoon. We spent 7 days at a vacation house that had no TV and we actually talked, played with our daughters, sang songs, danced, cooked, read books and watched the stars. These were things that we did before, but I must say that I often did them feeling that I was doing these things in a hurry, in a fussy rush so that I could finally get the kids to bed so that I could finally sit down and watch TV. The television was my release time, my down time, my "me" time.

But I always got up after 1-2 hours of watching TV feeling kind of dirty, kind of used. Perhaps it's the programming today (holy crap I sound old). But really, do we need to watch Vince Neal trying to find a girlfriend on some crappy reality show? Yes, I actually caught myself watching that godawful show one night and it just felt wrong, like a dirty thing no one should ever know about, but I couldn't stop myself. Television has long been an addiction of mine. I flip through channels and watch stupid shows, or worse, shows I have already seen. I'd watch someone remodel a house for an hour on some "flip" show and start thinking about how I could change my house (which really needs no changing).

But the biggest reason we cancelled the cable was our three-year-old daughter. While we were on vacation, she played so creatively. She talked to her toys, gave them voices as they exchanged pleasantries. She built towers out of blocks. She created a game called "Time is running out!" in which she ran from one room to the next carrying things, shouting with urgency, "Time is running out!" The list is endless of the fun, creative, smart things she did to entertain herself and us. Not once did she ask to watch a movie (until the 6th day...more later). But you must understand that this is a kid that woke up, rubbed her eyes, and said, "I want to watch a movie." I'm not exaggerating. Somehow we'd gotten into the habit of allowing her to watch TV in the morning before school. It was selfish of us, in a way. We got to shower, drink our coffee in somewhat peace, maybe read an article in the paper. But the result was that the first thing our little girl did every morning was tune out. We all tuned out of each other. And in the afternoon, around 4PM when she started to get tired and often cranky, on the TV would go. Often for more than an hour. Yes, I know, we're awful parents for letting this happen. But we have a demanding 4-month-old too and we're both perpetually exhausted and we just couldn't stay on top of things. TV was our way to get her to chill out. No longer.

I have no idea how I'm going to handle those cranky afternoons without TV, but maybe if I sit down and play with her, or offer a creative activity, she'll be okay? I have no idea. We'll still let her watch movies every now and then...but no cartoons on demand.

So here's what happened when I called the cable company. It went something like this.
Me: Hi, I'd like to cancel our cable.
TV guy: Okay, I can help you with that. Can I ask why you're changing your service?
Me: Our kids watch too much television. (Lame, I know, to blame it on them...)
TV guy: Oh! (laughs) Okay. So how would you like to downgrade your service?
Me: No, we don't want to downgrade. We want to cancel it.
TV guy: You want NOTHING? No TV?
Me: (Embarrassed laugh.) Yeah, well, we're on vacation and our daughter---she's only 3---has been playing so well without TV and we just want to try it. Just for a while.
TV guy: No Sprout for her? Not even once in a while? My daughter is 2 and she just loves the Sprout channel. Or what's that thing -- those DVDs for babies?
Me: Oh, you mean, "Little Einsteins"? The one with the rocket where the kids go on adventures?
TV guy: No, those things that are just music & pictures for babies.
Me: Oh! Baby Einstein?
TV guy: Yeah, those aren't bad, are they?
Me: I guess not. Um, but can I cancel it?
TV guy: What about if you need to check the traffic?
Me: (Getting impatient.) We'll just turn on the radio, I guess. (Nervous laugh.)
TV guy: Man, you guys are brave or crazy.
Me: (Exasperated silence.)
TV guy: Okay, we'll cancel your service as of August 31st. You'll owe $22.
Me: Okay thanks bye.

I hung up the phone and walked into the house and looked at my husband as if I'd just done something incredibly risky, daring, and dangerous. He laughed, said something like, "Good." He supports the decision whole-heartedly but says he wouldn't have had the guts to make the call.

The first night after cancelling the cable, I lied in bed thinking about what it might be like. First I worried mostly about missing sporting events. Football season is starting and I love college football. Our favorite team was on this weekend and luckily we were at a restaurant and could keep up with the game on the TV in the sports bar. We watched it with a bit more glee than before cancelling our own television feed. Like the last hit before going into rehab.

I also thought about my daughter...about if she would end up being the weird kid in school who didn't know anything about popular culture. I remember one girl in my high school who didn't have TV and she sat silent in all of our conversations about Family Ties and The Cosby Show. I felt sorry for her. Should I have? Am I making my kid into the weird kid? These are all things I've considered. And it's only September 2nd. Good grief.

Exhaustion is starting to set in and I want to finish my book from vacation so I'm signing off. But I'll log on every day this month and will let you know how life is going in our newly televisionless world. I will be completely honest. We'll see how this goes!!!