Smith Kids MSU Tailgate

Smith Kids MSU Tailgate
Dominica, Veronica, Rebel and Miranda

Sunday, December 25, 2011

What's next?

With the year of NOTV drawing to an end, people are probably wondering what's next?  I am wondering too so if you have any ideas please send us comments or suggestions.  I have a few things figured out, but I am still making plans for 2012 so please share your thoughts. 

The first thing this little NOTV experiment did for me was to raise awareness and educate me.  I am now much more aware of television time.  I also learned that I much prefer life without television to life with it and I learned that my husband feels completely the opposite.  He has been missing the television terribly for months now and if not for my complete, unwavering,  insistence that we continue without it, he would have caved long ago. 

This much is for certain, during the day when Mommy is in charge, we will continue to live without television.  Another certainty is that there will be one minor exception to this: If I happen to have the house cleaned, dinner finished, the kids otherwise occupied and it is four in the afternoon, Ellen will be airing in our house and I will be watching it.  Ellen I have missed you so terribly and I can't wait for the first time that I get to tune in and shake it with you!  Given the stipulations that I have placed on myself, it may be June or July before I get to watch, but I am a patient person so I will wait.  I also can't wait to see Kara strattle her little table mimicing Ellen.  That is the best! 

In the evenings, I feel a compromise will be critical since Jeff feels we should turn the television on for the entire evening and I would just assume leave it off altogether.  I think ground rules are going to be absolutely essential so I am in the process of creating some.  I will be gathering signatures from all family members as well thereby agreeing to follow the rules governing the television to avoid future arguments.  The most important rule is going to be that if the house is not picked up, the television will remain off. Given the kid's talents and abilities in the realm of mess making, this rule alone should eliminate a good portion of the television that would otherwise be watched at night.

I also have a confession to make.  The past couple of weeks I had been letting the kids watch videos while I drive us around.  It seemed like it was making my life easier since they would then ride quietly and happily while I ran holiday related errands.  As with most things in life, just because it seemed to make things easier, it didn't mean it was a good idea.  At first, the kids did great with this little arrangement; they were thrilled with the chance to watch shows, but they soon developed a sense of entitlement.  The entitlement led to anger and frustration whenever a show was not able to be shown in its entirety and the whole thing spun out of control quickly devolving into a big mess.  It was a bad decision on my part to do this in the first place and after a complete, ugly, out-of-control,  meltdown by Aven a few days ago I completely eradicated the process.  Movies will no longer be aired in our van unless we are driving for more than a couple of hours.

On a totally unrelated topic, The Thornbirds is an excellent book and I finished it in about a week.  It was my 30th book of the year!  I can honestly say that eliminating the television led me back to reading so I do feel strongly that NOTV has probably made me smarter, or at the very least, made me more well read.  My book club girls helped to broaden my horizons too without them I never would have read 1984 or Frankenstein.  Thanks guys!

2011 was the year of NOTV. I also ran my first marathon and worked to help design and build our new home.  2011 has been an incredible journey.  2012 is but a blank piece of paper awaiting my thoughts, insights and dreams to fill it up and provide it with direction and purpose.  Bring it 2012!!Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our faithful followers!

Vern Out

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