Giving Up Cable Television
By Alyice Edrich,
a freelance writer,
South Dakota, U.S.A.
http://alyiceedrich.net
My
children cried when they realized they could no longer watch their
favorite television shows, but soon learned that wholesome videos
can cure their withdrawals in a moment's notice. But more importantly,
they've gotten off their butts and started enjoying more physical
and bonding activities. And the best part is that I no longer hear,
"Just a minute mom. I'll be there on commercial. Huh, what
did you say? Oh, I forgot because I got hooked on this show."
And, "do I have to? I was right in the middle of the good part!"
It all began on February 9, 2004 when my friend
and I attended an all- day Women's Bible Study. At one of the workshops,
the speaker discussed ways we could simplify our lives and in return
grow stronger bonds with our children and other loved ones. One
of her suggestions was to nix the television. She read a study that
stated television consumption wastes approximately 4 hours of our
day and 13 years of our lives. She went on to ask, "If you knew
you could gain just 6 of those years back by cutting your television
watching down to just 2 hours a day, what would you do with all
that time?"
The irony was that this lesson came at a time when
my husband and I requested our cable services be lowered to the
very basic package, but found the cable company had disconnected
our service instead. Now for those of you who live in a big city
being without cable isn't that big of a deal, but for those of us
who live in rural communities, we need cable just to get channels
2 through 13 to come in clear. After learning that the cable company
wasn't going to be able to come back out for another week and that
we would incur a "service connection" charge, we decided to forego
cable altogether.
Our 9 year-old-daughter stormed out of the room,
up the stairs, and straight into her bedroom as she mumbled and
screamed about the injustice of it all. Our 13 year-old-son looked
at us in disgust while he complained that he'd never be able to
watch television again because the only shows he ever watched were
cable-only stations. And my husband; well, let's just say that he
had a moment of television jitters but soon realized something pretty
powerful—television shows had become more important than socializing
with his family and friends. He realized and later admitted that
he had grown accustomed to planning his time around what show was
on at what time and yelling at the kids to "not" interrupt him.
I'll admit that the first week was the hardest.
With so much time on their hands, my children began bickering with
each other over the silliest things. After a week of listening to
my children constantly bicker, I was ready to re-order cable. But
we stuck it out. We're now going on our third week and I'm pleased
to announce that no one has died of boredom, the children have stopped
bickering (well for the most part), my husband and I have found
more time to talk with our kids and each other, we've rediscovered
reading for pleasure, and board games have become a family affair.
It truly has been a blessing in disguise and a great way to reacquaint
ourselves with one another.
About The Author
Alyice Edrich is a work-at-home
mom with an award winning online magazine. Visit her websites to
learn how you can earn $50 in two hours or up to $10K working from
home in your spare time (http://thedabblingmum.com/ebookstore)
or to learn how you can purchase one of her hand painted designs
(http://alyiceedrich.net).
Re-published from TrueChristianity.info
in September 2012
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