After nearly a week away from home visiting family, and the obligatory use of television baby-sitting as an aid to adult conversation, I decided this morning to try something a little radical.
No TV.
All day.
Do you know what? My world did not fall apart. My children did not go feral. I did not feel like I needed to resort to it in order to do things. Instead we had a really, truly, focused day today. Focused on doing fun things, together.
Now, lest this sound like I have the television on 24/7, this could not be further from the truth. Normally the kids get to watch some TV in the morning and then once again in the late afternoon. But I have found it to be an attention stripper and a brain-sucker. I would really like to keep us a TV Free zone, but the adult male in the household may find that a bit hard to deal with. We will see how it goes when he returns from his trip away.
In the meantime, I am going to try it again tomorrow. Just to see. You know. In case today was a fluke. Keep your fingers crossed for fine weather and well rested children, and we may survive another TV Free day together.
Are you TV Free, or do you have watching rules?
The Pukeko Patch 
We have limited TV time here. None at all on weekday mornings and very rarely after school either! Mostly just on weekends and I really prefer it to be restricted by being 1 DVD, or ‘until dinner is ready’ for example, then there is a clear ending rather than ‘right, time to turn it off ‘ and they freak out and can’t think of anything else they could possibly do without it!
I wish I was more consistent in this area. Miss OWW is usually fine if I give a warning that “at the end of…” the TV is finished for the day. But Master OWW is just at that stage where even with that warning, if he’s become hooked in, there are tanties to be had. I’m soooo waiting for the tanty/self-control wiring phase to work itself through.