…of not having a TV are incalculable. I have never missed the TV, I’ve never wanted one, and that is something that we agreed not to have (at least for the present) before we got married. We’re still in the present and we haven’t missed it, don’t want it, and still don’t have one. I can’t imagine that it could add a single element of quality to our lives. I’ve lived all my life without a TV (my parents finally got a TV and video player when I was about 20 years old so my sister and I could do a Spanish video course), and I find them to be a nuisance most of the time. (I do enjoy good videos/DVD’s and so on, but I have a pretty narrow range of those that I like.) And, maybe most importantly, I am so busy, and there are so many things that I want to do, when would I ever have time to watch TV? My theory has always been, why would I want to watch life being lived by someone else (on TV)? I want to live it myself.
And here is a glimpse into the rich lives of our kids without TV.
This morning, Paul & Hannah were having a little trouble finding their equilibrium (meaning they were scrapping, fussing, whining and crying). I was cooking a lunch because we had invited the guys to eat with us, so I couldn’t read books and do school with them like we do most mornings. After they settled down and things were quiet and calm, I started one of their children’s songs CD’s. Hannah got her doll baby and stood at the window watching snowflakes fall and listening to the music. I brought her a little chair to sit on. Soon, Paul brought a stool and joined her. They both sat there quietly and listened to the music and watched the snow fall for at least one time through the CD. (Now, would they have done that if they were used to the flashing, fast-picture-changing, headache-inducing streaming of TV?)
