Why We Cut off Cable T.V….With an Ode to My Childhood

You see those pictures above? It wasn’t always like that. Even AFTER those pictures were taken. Why? In between then and now we had cable TV.

I’ll admit it…sometimes the TV was my savior in the house when I needed to get things done. I would just put it on for the kids to watch.

And they could watch for hours.

And sometimes I let them.

Sometimes it was a relaxing thing for me to do too. But, then I started to notice a trend. We, as a family, were NOT outside as much, not having family time as much, and getting caught up in TV shows {come on…you know you have watched HOURS of TV at a time}.

See, I am FAR from the perfect mother. I make mistakes.  I have lied to my kids just to make things easier for me.  I’ve even let them watch hours of TV…because I needed a break. I needed to be left alone for a while and cable TV was the only way I could make that happen.

Or so I thought.

One day I got to thinkin‘. I had cable TV as a kid, but I didn’t really watch it all that much. I started thinking back to my elementary school years and why I wasn’t stuck in front of the TV all day {besides Saturday morning cartoons of course}.

You want to know why I didn’t watch much TV as a kid?

BECAUSE I WAS OUTSIDE. PLAYING.

Ode to My Childhood

I was playing with my friends. Usually I played with Julie, Tiffany, and/or Katie. There were other kids like Kristy, Kristen, Stacy (I think that was her name), Christina, Denise, and of course the siblings of Julie, Tiffany, and Katie. But, most of my memories center around those three girls.

What did we do? The question should be ‘what did we NOT do?’

We:

• Reenacted The Baby Sitters Club books underneath an oak tree
• Went on bike rides out in the woods
• Built forts
• Smashed Oreo’s on the screens of our windows (remember Tiff, we got in so much trouble)
• Julie and I made up dances…in her driveway (Toy Soldier was my fav)
• Julie’s mom would make us AWESOME pb&j sandwiches and we drank water out of the jars that turned into cups that jelly came in (usually w/the Flintstones on them)
• Collected tadpoles in jars from the ditch because we wanted to watch them grow into frogs (although I don’t think one ever made it that long)
• Collected and searched for grasshoppers in the fields
• Rode Stacy’s new Barbie powerwheels car
• Played board games…outside
• Played kickball ALL the time
• Rode our bikes
• Ran, jumped, hopped, and skipped
• Ate pixie sticks and traded candy in the fields between our houses
• Walked home from school ALONE
• Played in the rain and puddles
• Started fires behind Katie’s house (oopsies)
• We DID watch TV (but it was ONLY to watch Sinéad O’Connor’s: Nothing Compares 2U video, something was intriguing about the almost bald lady)
• Drove our parents crazy (ask Julie’s mom about the beeper story…she remembers that 25 years later)

….BUT we were outside, playing. Seriously, we were gone from sunrise to sunset. One kid’s parents would see ALL of us for lunch ;). We would return to each of our homes for dinner, baths, and bedtime.

Then we would repeat the same thing the next day.

My Kids

I realized my kids didn’t do that. You told them to go outside and they would say “And do what mom? It’s so boring!”

“Really? DO WHAT?” I would exclaim!

Then I remembered that in most towns kids don’t play outside anymore. Why would they want to? They have cell phones, I-pads, tablets, gaming devices, cable TV, etc.

And I am sorry to say folks that these electronics do NOT let kids use their imaginations.

I wanted my kids to play outside and use their imagination. After all, that IS one of the reasons we moved to South Carolina…because we would have LAND for them to play on. A creek to play in. They could be a kid, like I was.

When we first moved to SC we were outside exploring ALL THE TIME.

Then we got cable. And I noticed it stopped. Almost completely. The kids ONLY wanted to stay inside and watch TV.

I also noticed I was putting them in front of the TV. And as much as I hate to admit it, they were starting to sometimes DRIVE ME CRAZY! 

But why?

I’ll tell you why. It’s because they were ALWAYS in the house. 

That had to change.

We also noticed a DRASTIC change in behavior from M (who is 9). She seemed to have knowledge of topics she shouldn’t. She also presented that having mansions and millions of dollars was the ONLY way to live. She started acting like she should have everything, like some sense of entitlement. So, Beau and I wondered how and why she would be acting like this.

We didn’t watch her TV shows with her. We had parental controls on the TV, so we thought everything was fine.

One night Beau and I decided to watch some of M’s favorite shows.  WE WERE SHOCKED…to say the least.  There seemed to be some recurring “themes” we found such as:

• Every kid should be rich and entitled
• It is ok to disrespect adults and you can get away with it 
• That high school kids having orgy’s, dating their bosses from work, and committing crimes was OK

…yes these were topics that were on shows DURING prime time at night (8pm) and/or during the day after school hours AND they were on KID/FAMILY STATIONS.

Time for a Change

After watching those shows I was just FED UP.

I was fed up with the kids only wanting to watch TV. I was fed up with us disconnecting as a family. I was also saddened by the topics covered on VERY POPULAR shows that kids, as young as 5 watch.

So, what did I do?

I disconnected it. It wasn’t easy.

We only had cable for about 8 months, but in those 8 months our family completely changed.

We lost the family dynamic. We lost everything we had worked for, as parents, in instilling good moral characters into our 9 year old…

And I AM blaming it on TV.

Where We Are Now

The cable was disconnected four months ago. We are STILL trying to reconnect and do family things (besides the constant work on the homestead).

We are STILL having to re-teach M good morals and character.

AND IT IS VERY HARD SOME DAYS.

But, Beau and I feel we are heading in the right direction. It is up to US, as parents, to teach our children. I REFUSE to let my children be consumed by TV and electronics ALL THE TIME.

I want my kids to have memories like I do as a kid.

I don’t want their memories to be of them being cooped up inside and on electronics all day. 

Call me old-fashioned. Call me out-of-the-loop and not living in the “real world.” Call me what you want.

But, I am sorry folks, if that is what is in the “real world,” I DON’T want it.

And it is something I definitely do NOT want for my kiddos. I will take my homesteading, making most from scratch, natural living, rural living, country way-of-life over ANY kind of life I saw on cable TV.

I WANT MY KIDDOS TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY OUTSIDE. I want them to be free spirits and use their imagination.

I don’t want cable TV.

Glimpse of Life Without Cable

This is what we do when we DON’T have the option to watch TV:

How do you feel about cable TV?

This post was shared on: Heritage Homesteaders Hop, Mostly Homemade Monday’s, 

Disclaimer: As y’all know I do this little thing called blogging. In order to support my blogging activities I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. I really appreciate y’alls support! Please know that I will only recommend products that I USE, LOVE, or REALLY HAVE A HANKERING FOR. God Bless!