TV turnoff week challenge...

mmmmm....

We lasted till tuesday....  

(actually Monday night... but honeypie fell asleep on the couch monday night and missed the TV watching daddy and I did....)

OK...  that said,  I am embarrassed as can be and I am deeply pondering over the whole thing... 

Here were my findings...

Honeypie got conjunctivitis on the friday before the weekend... I am talking about puss ooozing out of the eyes.  Scary. She had a high fever and a bit of congestion, so that just set us up for loosing.   Though we began to talk about NO TV week on the saturday prior and made tons of plans as a family of what we were going to do AND we were all on board.  With honeypie sick, we were indoors for 5 days starting that friday... and I have to tell you that by monday I was a bit overwhelmed.  

In retrospect... we actually do not watch that much TV... (maybe? i guess?) 

We are really full of things to do all week.  We cook, we bake, we craft, we read tons, listen to audio books too... we are outside, playdates and errands.  

TV falls into that space of " YOU entertain me NOW please". 

We watch the occassional DVD movie... since we can't get to a movie theater without honeypie. I tend to find "joy" in the food network and  the DIY  channel,  daddy loves his PBS and Discovery for his "storm chasers",  anything "history" and "deadliest catch", and honeypie loves her "max and ruby" or "toot and puddle". 

When we go on vacation we do not watch TV.   Most of summer and spring we do not watch that much  TV... I guess it is the hibernating winter that finds us inside...

OK... so now I feel like I am justifying... confessing and justifying.... 

The truth is that  I am embarrassed we could not bring ourselves to stop for just a week. Dissappointed.  

Though we are very conscious of HOW we USE the TV set, what shows we watch and when... though we have much quality family time playing and making art together, reading or quietly listening to music together.... 

We DO like TV.  

And I am not sure if that is so bad.  I am not sure.

Does having no TV in my house mean we will be doing more instead?  or less?

Does it mean our brains are frying or  "rotting" as honeypie says?

Does it mean we do not know how to be together?  Have ADD?  will get ADD?

Will I sew more, learn to play the piano or become julia childs?  Will honeypie be smarter if she does not watch? Is this effecting our family negatively?  

I don't think so. 

but i do know it is stressful... this guilt.

I guess I can say we use the TV more as a learning tool than entertainment... but enjoy the entertainment that it does...

I am dissappointed we did not meet our goal, just because we said we were going to and i like keeping to what I set out to do. So in that respect we failed.

But

I am very impressed and amazed at the NON-TV watching world and  I am very interested in reading everyones entries and findings...

I am glad we tried and I am glad I got a chance to reflect.

Hope others were more successful!