Now that I'm in my last 2 months of pregnancy (and very eager to have it over with, too), I've been watching lots and lots of TV. My energy level is so low that watching TV is about the best I can manage.
I have high hopes and grand plans, though, of all that I'm going to accomplish in the evenings, starting a few months after baby #2 is born. And to do this, my TV watching habits will need to change drastically. Put simply - I have very little free time at all. Soon, with baby #2, I'll have even less. I can't afford to spend large chunks of that time watching TV, if I want to get anything done.
Last night, Eric and I watched the show Rough Science. Great show, very interesting. But the thought I was left with was this - that watching other people do neat things on TV rates about a 1 on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being things that make you a loser couch-potato, and 10 being things that make you a well-rounded, interesting, accomplished person). Actually DOING neat things yourself - that ranks far, far higher - in the 8 to 1o range.
The problem is that a normal brain, when faced with a choice between watching something interesting and/or entertaining on TV, or not watching TV, and having to come up with other plans, will most often just make the easy choice - just watch TV. It takes a lot of effort to do something else - especially if you've been in the habit, like I have, of watching TV as a default activity.
About 12 years ago I moved out of a house that I rented with a lot of other people, where TV watching was the default activity every evening. I moved to an apartment, and made the choice to not have a TV. The first few weeks were rough. I remember looking longingly at the cable plug on the wall. But it got better, and soon I didn't think of it at all, except that I had more time for things, and felt somewhat smug about not having a TV.
So, it can be done. And soon I'll be thinking more about specifics. Like, can we just get rid of the TV? My husband might have a problem with that, being that he bought this monster flat screen TV for himself. What other solutions are there? Our son Kenny frequently watches a kiddie show a day, such as Dora the Explorer and Franklin. Should we limit that?
Stay tuned till next time...
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