The great TV debate.

To have a TV or not have a TV? That has been our question lately.

Let me start off by saying I don't think TV is bad. Obviously having a TV in your home is a personal choice and a matter of conviction, and I know there are many people out there with very strong opinions against it. I'm not one of them. Having said that, I don't think TV is all that good either.

We recently took a 10 week hiatus from the TV. It wasn't something we planned, it just sort of happened. It got packed up in November, and when our stuff was delivered sometime mid-December, we had them put it straight into the garage. Ironically, we have free cable here--it's included with rent--and yet we didn't feel compelled to use it.

By January, we realized we really didn't miss it much, although I did kind of feel like I lived in a bubble. I didn't even know about the earthquake in Haiti until almost 2 days later. I've always hated TV as background noise, I prefer the quiet. But we did miss watching the news. And Top Chef. And HGTV. And my dear friends the Duggars. And on and on....I get sucked in.

All that time without a TV sort of helped us gain some perspective, and we came up with a few guidelines for our family. We will only ever have ONE in the house (did you know the average American home has more televisions than people living in it?) so that everyone has to watch it together and be in agreement about what we are watching. Secondly, if we have cable (and we may not after our next move) we will also have a DVR so that we can choose ahead of time the shows we want to watch and fast forward through commercials. Except for the rare occasion, we will not eat dinner in front of the TV (this used to end up happening once or twice a week and Micah hates it) so that we can have a family dinner with conversation.

Ultimately, we don't want our television watching to outweigh the other more important things in our lives. I guess it's really about stewardship of our time. In a sermon a couple of weeks ago the pastor said that the average parent spends 6 hours a week shopping and only 40 minutes a week playing with their child. I haven't researched it, but I'm sure the average American also spends way more than 6 hours a week watching TV. It makes me sad to think of all the time wasted on things that don't matter, when our children need us so much. Not that there aren't plenty of other ways to waste time without a TV. (I finally got sucked in and read the whole Twilight series in the last 2 weeks--mostly when Skylar was sleeping so I'm a bit sleep deprived myself--but I finished it last night so normal life can resume again. Not the best use of my time.)

We also don't want the TV to be a major influence in Skylar's life. As it is now, she watches a veggie tale every morning after breakfast so that I can get ready in peace. But looking at her face in this picture, I swear I can see her brain rotting before my very eyes.... The dvd player has been my babysitter even in the absence of a TV, and there are days when she wears me out and I plop her down to watch a second one in the afternoon just to make.the.whining.stop. I feel slightly guilty about it, but I AM only human after all:)

So anyway, a TV is back in the house as of yesterday and we're going to make a conscious effort to minimize it's presence. If not, I guess we'll ditch it again when we move in 4 months:)