Thursday, April 23, 2009

No "Screen Time" day!

This week is supposed to be Turn off the TV week. I forgot until Tuesday night, and decided to make a small but achievable goal of one day instead of shooting for the whole rest of the week. Yesterday we didn't turn on the TV or computer all day long! Everyone was sad about it at some point in the day, but we made it! In fact, I'm pretty sure I suffered the most. I kept thinking of things I wanted to do on the computer. The problem is I have no self control with computer time. No matter why I sit down (even for one quick email or to look up something), I would guess that I usually waste about an hour. Frequently more. It's really sad. So I'm doing this blog, then turning it back off for a while.

The good things about yesterday? Katy, Ryan, and I played a game in the morning when they usually watch a show while I kill time on the computer. It was fun! And the boys actually played together nicely while I read a book during Katy's naptime. We've gotten in the habit of having them watch TV for 2-3 hrs while she sleeps, so it was the time I was most worried about. I was really proud of them for only complaining once right at the beginning! And because I read a book in the evening, too, instead of watching TV/playing computer games, I went to bed at 10:30 instead of 12-12:30 like lately. I feel so much better today!

Now I need to figure out how to get these benefits without totally shutting everything off. We're actually thinking of canceling cable. We were planning on not having TV here, but got sucked in by the package deal. And our internet has been flaky lately, maybe we'll switch from Comcast to Quest. We have Netflix, that should be enough to keep us reasonably entertained. And maybe I should set hours to have the computer on or something. Or grow some self control.

Which reminds me of the weirdest thing I noticed yesterday. I had this vague feeling of not allowing myself to do something I like to do, so I kept thinking I shouldn't eat or go shopping. Um, no. It wasn't Fast Sunday. Just no screen time day. It was weird that my mind connected those things!

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