unplugged. screen free time and a TV free month

This month we are having a TV free challenge. No telly at all for an entire month. (Except the football. Being finals month, it was the only way to get DH to agree.)

I went five years without owning a TV when I first moved out of home. When I flatted, we didn’t have internet either, so the evenings were filled with board games, reading, chatting, sewing and music.

I miss that.

Now we don’t watch all that much TV, but we eat dinner in front of it. That hour or two is the only time DH and I spend together alone and I feel that it is wasted by being zoned out in front of the box. Also, when the little fella grows up (that’s not a picture of him by the way, the little fella isn’t allowed to watch TV yet) we want to have family meals sans TV. So we may as well start getting used to it now.

Actually, if I had my way, I would probably get rid of the box altogether.

With today’s technology, unplugging the TV doesn’t necessarily equate to being screen free. There’s not much point avoiding one media and spending hours on another (in this case the internet).

So two new rules:

1. No computer while the little fella is awake. No writing, no Facebook, no checking emails, no reading blogs. No computer.
2. No computer at all on Sundays. None.

After all, a parent has to model the behaviour they want their kids to learn.

So how are we going?

The first couple of nights without TV were a little odd. The absence was notable. We had to make conversation which is something we haven’t done in a while. We could do with the practice.

Screen free time during the little fella’s waking hours has, on one hand, made me more present. Not that I was on the computer much, but he is old enough now to look up from Mr Teddy and watch what mum is doing.

On the other, I’m trying to encourage the little fella to play independently a bit more, so I dusted off the old pen and paper to write while he is wrestling with an empty egg carton. I forgot how much easier it is to think with a pen in hand and without the distraction of the internet.

So, I know it is a little into the month, but are you up for a TV free challenge? Reclaim your nights by getting unplugged and switching on.

Have you read these posts?

1. Unplugged. spend more time being switched on by being switched off
2. 50 Free And Almost Free Holiday Activities For Kids
3. finding time to craft Part One–making time
4. finding time to blog
5. finding time to craft part two – making the most of your time