The part that most concerns me is that I did not miss it AT ALL!!!
And quite frankly, if I did not have a 12 years old son, not sure I would have hooked it up to any service!!! Might even have thrown it out the window!!! (figuratively speaking - I would not want it to end on any one's head!)
Truth is my son is already different because of his "crazy" mom... being vegetarian, minimalist, not owning a car or a house.. having only 1 TV and 1 computer.... seriously who lives like that by choice??? Well I do.... and my husband does... and so does my son (and many other minimalist I know do!!! He's not unhappy about it... but I figured that not having TV could make a difference... I mean , teenagers love to speak about TV shows they watch!!!
I just have to make sure that this is not ALL he does... so TV time is restricted to 1h per day for him during the week (unless he is watching a documentary on animals or history...where he actually learns something!)... a little longer over the week end or holidays... but TV is always off between 10 am and 6 pm! We do not refrain from doing anything because of a TV show... and if no one is watching, it is CLOSE! It is not used as background noise!!! Also, since we only have one, and very different tastes in what we like to see, we need to share it...
All this makes it so that TV is not the main focus of our lives... it is so easy to let it invade our lives... I mean what you see on this thing is well studied... you see nice people, well dressed, fashionable... nice houses... nice cars... the newest of everything - from cell phone, to ipad, to cars and appliances! Money is no problem!!! No one needs to shower.. or work for that matter! You can eat in restaurants all the time, whatever you want and be perfectly healthy and as thin as a stick! You can even drink and it is just fine!!!
I remember when I became a minimalist, watching TV was not easy.. and it was the reason, at first, why I would sometimes have drawbacks!! Why would I not be allow to have this nice dress? or this new front load washing machine in red (when mine was washing my clothes just as well - btw, I never bought the red front load washing machine - but I did think about it seriously!)? Also when we decided to give up our car... it seemed like all I could see was adds for new cars.. with 0% interest and no down payment!!! Never mind when I gave up meat.... all those chicken wings... pepperoni pizzas... smoke meat... hamburgers.... it was all there in my face!!!
This is actually when I started watching less TV... and realize how well conditioned we are! Of course if you see something on TV you are very likely to want to have it!!! Who wouldn't? Publicity company spends billions of $$$ each year selling us stuff we do not really need! They know what they are doing and what buttons to push!!! It is their job to do so!!!
All that said, the good side of not watching TV is that it gives me time to spend quality time with my son! I got to play a few board games with him... we even had lovely discussions sitting on the couch as a family! We spent more time outside! We appreciated what we have.... instead of creating new "needs" or "wants". I invested more time reading... and just breathing!!!
More quality time...
Less worries...
Less comparing myself to others... just being happy with who I am and the path I chose to travel!
TV is now back on... but my relationship to it has changed even more... I will try and have my family vote a TV free day... like we did with the car a few years ago.... and we'll see where that leads us! I will keep you posted on how that TV free day goes...
do you guys have a TV?
what do you watch on it?
would you consider picking one day a week where the TV remains off all day and see what happens?
love and peace,
nath
xox
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