The Experiment

Yesterday was the last day of our self-imposed disconnect from television. Some of you may be interested in learning about the impact it had on our lives - if any.  My observations are as follows:
1. We read a lot more.  A LOT more.  In fact, during Lent, we read 46 books as a family.  Elizabeth was by far the best reader, at 30 books; I was a distant second; Lee was a very distant third, but to be fair, he spent most of April repainting our bedroom, which was quite the job, considering how much cutting had to be done and how many coats it needed.  Even the book that he did read was a heavy, World Word II historical fiction.
2.  We slept more. Especially Lee.  Oftentimes, we wait until a television show (or game) is over until we go to bed but with nothing to watch, we went to bed when we were tired.  The girls didn't beg to watch "just 10 more minutes" of a show or movie before bed, so they ended up being more well rested as well.  I, however, am a compulsive reader, so it was not unusual for me to stay up until 2 am to finish a book.
3. We snacked less.  At least Lee and I did.  Usually, when we are watching television at night, we pause the television at some point and have a snack - cheese and crackers; ice cream; chips and dip.  But when we were reading at night, we rarely put down our books and got a snack.
4. We were all a bit better behaved, Emily especially.  You might think that the girls would be less behaved without television to entertain them but for the most part, they were better behaved.  First, they never asked to watch television.  They knew, from day one, that the television was off until Easter and they never asked to watch it; they never whined; they never complained.  But even better, I didn't have to deal with Emily's routine temper tantrums, which regularly occur on weeknights when it is time to turn off the television and go to bed.  With no television to turn off, there were no tantrums to be had.  Amazing.

This was a relatively common sight over the last six weeks.

So what will we change, if anything?  Although I don't have Lee's complete buy-in yet, I think that the girls should remain television-free, Monday through Friday.  They don't watch much television during the week anyway, so it wouldn't be that much of a sacrifice, but there would be so much more reading and playing and so much more peace and harmony.  I also think that Lee and I should be television free at least one or two nights a week, so that we can continue to make headway with our reading.  I also think that we should do this again next year during Lent.  And the year after that.  And the year after that.
Now, if you'll excuse me, we have 19.5 hours worth of shows saved on our DVR to watch....