The Great TV Purge

I have kicked around the idea of giving up the TV for a while now, but my reliance on the TV as a babysitter has always made me give up on that idea very quickly.  But a few things have changed in my house that have made this prospect more likely to succeed.

1. I did homeschool my children up until this year, but they are now in school.
2. Joy was doing preschool at home, but started a K4 program at a church school this week after spending 2 months wandering through the house aimlessly missing her brother and sister, asking to watch TV, or dogging my every step.
3. The hubs signed us up for Netflix streaming so we can now watch uncommercialized shows.

A fourth thing has happened that sped up the decision.  In the last few weeks I have noticed an unappreciated trend where after watching TV, my children suddenly have things to add to their Christmas lists.  Toys they'd never heard of before but that are suddenly absolutely vital to their existence.  This was particularly noted in Joy.  She would sit and watch a show on the TV in the office (right by my computer).  Every commercial break she would say, "Mommy, I want that for Christmas."  To which I would ask, "What is it?"  And the answer would almost always be, "I don't know, but I want it for Christmas."  Right.

Today was Day 1 of the Great TV purge.  The rules are no TV, but they can watch a half hour of Netflix after dinner.  (No commercials) I thought the kids would fight me on this decision.  At the very least beg to watch TV.  Instead, this is what happened today after school.

I went to the library for my regularly planned weekly visit.  Instead of selecting an assortment of DVDs for the children to watch, I chose 10 books.  After school and homework, I sat down and read the children 2 books.  When I was done I told them there were lots more books in the bag and to help themselves.  Dave picked out a book and started reading.  Lizzy pulled out every book and carried her pile to the table, laid them all out, picked the one with the pink cover and read it to Joy.

After dinner, this is the scene that I found when I was done doing the dishes.

Lizzy is helping Joy read her own book

While my entire family has always been a reading family anyway, today was a bit more so than normal.  I would say that Day 1 of the Great TV purge has been successful.