Well, it's been eight months since September and five months since I've posted to the blog. I'll get right to it. The big news: we have reconnected our cable. Yes, it's back. Don't judge us.
We reconnected for a multitude of reasons...mostly that our daughter was getting deathly bored of watching the same ten DVDs over and over again. And because I realized that the only way to get my child to physically STOP MOVING is to put her in front of the television. She can be so exhausted that her eyes are crossing, but she won't sit still and rest for more than one minute anywhere except in front of the television. So, we reconnected and got DVR and our recordings look like we must run a nursery school for television-addicted children. On our recordings list: Dragon Tales, Charlie and Lola, Peep and the Big Wide World (GREAT show), Little Einsteins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Dora The Explorer, Bindi the Jungle Girl, Caillou, and Handy Manny. Phew. Oh, and we tape Grey's Anatomy. And the occasional baseball game or tennis match.
Okay, that's not all. We also bought a 40" HD TV. I KNOW! I KNOW! We go from having no signal and an old tube TV that we bought in 1999 to a ridiculously big high-definition job with more channels than we know what to do with. We're fans of extremes, as you can imagine. Either that, or we just decided that there's nothing wrong with relaxing in front of the television. And, truthfully, our seven month hiatus from television taught us that we didn't need it. We didn't miss it. So now we watch movies, sports, and Grey's Anatomy. Oh, and I like that show "Chimp Eden." That monkey man is hot. But we don't sit in front of the TV like we used to. It's almost like we weaned ourselves and now we don't feel the need for sitting in front of the television--it's not our natural relaxing place. But, really, isn't it okay if it is once in a while? Isn't it wise to just use everything judiciously? Is this what we learned from our disconnecting experiment? I guess so. And, sadly, we learned that we couldn't parent our child and stay sane without a healthily stocked television arsenal. I wish that weren't the case, but when a four-year-old gets tired and mad and cranky, and the one-year-old is sick and the dog is barking and dinner is boiling over, twenty minutes of Peep and The Big Wide World doesn't look so sinister after all.
We're glad we did it. But we're also glad to be reconnected. We're watching less television, and honestly, I think what we do watch, we enjoy more. Ask me again in six months. I'll let you know.
Until then, PHASE TWO of the experiment BEGINS: A month of spending money on NOTHING BUT ESSENTIALS. Stay tuned.
1 comment:
Julie,
I just read a bunch of your blog posts. Not all the way from the beginning, but from October at least. So enjoyable!! It's so interesting to hear the thoughts and debates of someone who sounds a lot like me and my husband, and to learn about their decisions and just everyday lives. Thanks so much for sharing your story!
Oh wait, I forgot to mention, you don't know me and I don't know you. Here's how I ended up on your blog. You "liked" my comment on Shelly Baker's FB page, and I thought I recognized your name and so I wondered if you were at Kenyon or what. So I followed your link to your FB page, and it had this blog listed there. Hope I'm not creeping you out. I actually don't remember you, but I think I do kind of remember your face and name.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that your words are lovely and... real. And that's hard to find these days. I appreciated reading them.
Good luck with everything.
Erin Hatton
(Kenyon '96)
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