It's NO TV!

Hey -
we didn't have tv for years, but we just bought a new house and I decided to get tv again because I missed the HGTV shows. And, I'm really enjoying having them back. My kids still aren't watching "tv". They still watch DVD's that I can control and netflicks. Honestly, the Netflicks instant downloads are wonderful and I can control what is available for them to watch instantly.

Good luck!
L.

We have cable because I love TV. My daughter has a few shows she loves, Max & Ruby, Handy Manny, the Backyardigans, and Scooby Doo. We watch hers on the higher level channels, Nick Jr. and Boomerang and they dont have commericals except between shows, and I think 1 set per episode on Boomerang. We also have DVR, so if we've previously recorded one of her shows we can fast forward through the commercials.

There are some cute shows for 10-15 year olds. My 12 year old brother and I love to watch iCarly, and they still show some shows from when I was a kid like Saved by the Bell and Boy Meets World. Of course, those shows are on channels with commercials, but again, with the DVR we can fast forward. We also love to watch shows on Discovery like Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs, as well as shows on the History Channel, the States and the Presidents being among our favorites.

There's no real reason to have tv, but I grew up with it and so did my husband so we dont see a reason not to watch it unless it's an offensive show. It's also fairly pricey if that factors into your decision. A lot of shows you can watch for free on www.hulu.com or on the show's website. I have friends who opt for no cable and just buy their fav shows on dvd or do netflix.

as someone who grew up with no tv. I think i've turned into a pretty "normal" well adjusted adult. But I am pretty much out of the loop when it comes to anything 80's. (trivia games, jokes, common fond memories, music ect. ) Sometimes i think it would be nice to have a clue as to what people are talking about! I don't know if this really helps you with your question but i thought i would share. I think it can also be healthy to expose your kids to things you don't approve of (language and behavior and such) (things they for sure see at school) in your presence. You can then take that time to talk about those things and why you feel they are innapropriate and what the consequences of those actions can be. Now when they are under your roof is a great teaching time about all the things they will be exposed to when they are older and do not have your wisdom and guidance to lean on. (ie college)

I was raised without a tv. Then I had one during college. It got broken in a freak accident and I never replaced it. I married a college boy who was too broke to own a tv and we never got one. Now we are raising our own children without a tv. We have a "neutered" screen that allows us to watch video and we have a subscription to netflix which allows us to stream stuff we want to see from tv land.

My main motivation for not having a tv is something my father once said to us... "I will not raise children who sit around and watch other people accomplish things." He is right. Having an instant entertainment box makes it much easier to sit down and watch others instead of doing.

People ask me all the time how we get so much done...the answer? We don't have a tv. People ask me how come my kids are so close with each other...they actually like each other! The answer? When they are bored, there is no tv, so they turn to each other for games and entertainment. I whole heartedly support raising kids without a tv. I could go on and on and on... Don't do something just because you feel pressured for your kids to be more "in the loop" or "in the know."

VickiS

I would just recommend you get Netflix, and then get the Roku or whichever device you choose to stream the shows to your TV. You can put things on there that you want your kids to see, there are no commercials, and they have a fairly wide variety of programs from which to choose. They don't have all the Disney kid movies, but they do have Up, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, etc. They also have lots of G and PG rated movies and some TV shows like I-Carly. You can access the service for as little as $10 per month and the amount of shows you can put on your Roku are endless.

Nothing wrong with being "out of this world" on a great number of things. Keep the ban! :)

I love tv. Not having a tv is a valid choice. But having one - well, that's a valid choice too! I am tied to my culture by shared experiences - many of them shared via tv. I watched the Shuttle crash on a tv in my schools library. I sat with my mother as she cried watching the 9-11 attacks. I watched the ball drop with Dick Clark on New Year's Eve every year. I saw the Berlin wall come down. When I run into someone my age range and have nothing to say, I know at least we can share a laugh about watching Saved by the Bell and Fresh Prince of Bell-AIre. All those events that make up the collective conscience - we all watched those live - together - while holding our breath and holding someones hand. Now, I watch a lot of Nova with my kids. They love the Life Series, The Planet Earth series. Anything about bugs. But they also like Scooby Doo, Phineas and Ferb, and Truth or Scare. I really like Criminal Minds, and the news. We find a lot of great stuff on the History channel. Sometimes on a lazy Sunday afternoon after church, we'll walk in to find that My Fair Lady or Wizard of Oz is about to come on and we pile on the couch and sing along.
A DVR is a wonderful invention. I can record episodes of things I dont mind my little ones watching and my cable company lets me put filters. But in the end, I just use my own judgement and teach my kids to use thiers.

I have a DVR to fast forward through all the commercials.

I love TV. We use Cox but I don't know if it is just a local cable company or available everywhere. They offer parental controls and our TV's also have v-chips. We have complete control over the settings. My son does enjoy a few cartoons, scooby-doo, tom and jerry but he's kind of out of the cartoon/animated stage. He really likes History channel, myth busters, discovery channel, Dirty Jobs, Wipeout (nothing better than an hour of great laughter). He also likes game shows like Are you Smarter than a 5th grader and Wheel of Fortune.

My best advice, DON'T DRINK THE TV KOOL-AID! Your kids will survive spectacularly without it as you well know. Stick to your guns.

I felt that the TV was only bringing bad things into our house. The good things were available elsewhere. My kids ended up spending hours on end with their butts planted on the couch spaced out on the TV as is flipped from show to show for them.

I finally unplugged the cable from the wall. My kids had SUCH a BLAST once they learned to entertain themselves that I cancelled the service all together. A LOT more families are opting for this these days.

Just hold out a little longer. Your way is becoming the fad now...! lol!

We have TV on in our house constantly. My 3 year old doesn't even notice it most of the time though her shows are basically all that is on or some science/history program my husband is watching. I kind of think about TV like candy... if you don't allow someone to have it and then they discover it on their own, they may overindulge to where it is an obsession or causes other problems.

We have Verizon Fios... I am able to block any channels very easily with parental control and I do take advantage of this.

I don't have TV in my house either. My daughter is 8 and is not missing a thing. She does watch cartoons and recorded TV shows under my supervision through Netflix on our computer. I am not intending ever to pay for the mindless stuff that is available on cable. I don't think there are wonderful programs out there.

She spends time at her Dad's house watching TV and then quotes me the commercials and tells me I should buy that stuff... Yuck.

Our cable company is Comcast and it has the option of "Parental Controls", meaning that you as the parent can block any channels you would like for any amount of time...you can even block the whole TV reception for certain times during the day, if you'd like.

We have always had TV in our house, I have a whole grip of kids ages 18, 15, 14, 10, 6, 4 and 2 and I have never had to "block/restrict" TV...we have never made it an issue and thankfully none of the kids have either!

Moderation is the key...

Stick to your guns! Your kids will be fine without it. If it's a family value not to watch TV, then why change now?

Rent a movie once in a while.

As for the "out of this world"-ness, I think there is some value in discussing TV and magazine commercials with your teens. How Wall Street spends millions and millions of dollars trying to brainwash people into thinking they just "have" to look this way, have this kind of house, talk this kind of language. (For example, whenever I start complaining that I feel fat, I simply recycle all the magazines in my house that feature skinny models. Then I start feeling just fine about my body right away! :)

This way, your kids heads won't be stuck in the sand, but they'll have a mature response to TV ads when, eventually, they do come across them.

Nope! You're doing fine! We are the same. The kids can check things out from the library on dvd but we have NO tv channels at all!

I'd just stick with what you're doing. Every time we go anywhere and watch tv, I'm reminded why I NEVER want cable again!

PS> EVEN IF YOU MONITOR WHICH SHOWS THEY CAN WATCH, SOME OF THE COMMERCIALS ARE AWFUL AS WELL!!!

we were severe tv addicts, we had all the channels, and the dvr to record them because one thing at a time was not good enough. I cut it all off!....it was quite drastic of me actually, because everyone that knows me knows my addiction to hbo and showtime. I even severed our internet for a year, but i never did get the cable back, we have local channels only and netflix. Its 15 dollars a month for netflix, and local chanells are free....cant beat that

I think it's great that you don't watch tv- we don't at our house either but we do have a screen for movies and games. We got cable about 6 years ago when we moved- before that we didn't even own a television. We had it for a year and then we moved again and we decided that it just wasn't' worth it. We watched tv all the time-and none of it was what we considered the junkie shows. My husband watched sports, I watched the home improvement shows and I let my kids watch the "educational" channels. I think we both gained about 10 lbs!
Anyway, now if there are shows that we like to see(I love the new Dr.Who series) we rent it from the video store. There are no surprise commercials about male enhancement that I have to explain to my kids and we also check out some of the discovery channel shows from the library.
Yeah, they don't really know who Hannah Montana is, or who the next rising star of the pop world is- but I am fine with that and they all have plenty to talk about with their peers.
Every once in a while we will catch a show at a friend or family's house and I am just amazed at the poor quality of a lot of these programs and the bad influence they have with my children.
I say keep up the good work and don't worry about the tv. if there is a show that must be seen, you can find it on line or at your local video store.
God bless!
~C.

I envy your commitment! I avoided cable until my son was spending all his time at a neighbors so that he could watch all the sporting events. I got cable to entice him to stay home and invite his friends here.......and it worked. You can set up parental codes to keep your children off of certain networks, but you still need to just be aware and monitor what they watch. Sorry, wish I had a better answer for you.

There is a lot of mindless garbage on tv when you're bored. For the specific shows they would like to watch, check out hulu.com. They have a lot of shows and then netflix for the movies. My satellite contract is up in a couple months, I can't wait to cancel it! My boys are young right now, so they enjoy movies and music.

Awesome!!! We made the decision to turn off the tv or (tel-lie-vision) :) a little over a year ago.. This was one of the best decisions ever!!!!!! It amazes me at the number of people today who complain about TV (and video games, some music) being the reason for such issues today .... but yet they still let their children view, play & listen to them... You are doing a great service to them!!!! GOOD JOB!!!!

I wish I could help you pick a provider but we haven't had cable for years because it's too expensive for the service imho. (I hate paying to watch ads.) We discover new shows to watch on hulu.com or we get disks from netflix. Hulu has commercials but I really don't have anything against watching them, or alt tabbing to read mama source until they're over, when I pay nothing for the privilege. It's shelling out a large chunk of cash every month to watch commercial peppered shows that irritates me, so when we had to tighten our belts a few years ago, the first thing that went was cable TV. And I don't really miss it.

I use the netflix website to find new things to watch all the time on demand for only 8.99 a month. TV series as well as movies. You can watch it on your tv if you have a nintendo wii or a ps3. (You can do it with the xbox too but it requires a subscription to xbox live which bumps the price up so I don't really consider it an option.)

So if the only reason you're contemplating turning the cable back on is so your kids aren't considered abnormal or "out of this world", you can still help them keep up to date with whatever shows their friends are talking about without subscribing to commercial bloated programming.

If you have the extra cash lying around and can't think of anything else you'd rather spend it on, then I suggest ATT's Uverse cable if it's available in your area. When I had to set up my internet after moving to this new place the only way I could get the internet rate and speed I wanted was to sign up for their Uverse bundle which means I either had to pick their cable and dvr box or their digital phone service. I chose the cable and for the month that I had to have it before I could drop it and still keep my internet I did enjoy their offerings. The DVR was pretty neat because I could just pre-record everything I wanted to watch and catch it a night later than everyone else but click past all the ads.

I had to re-allocate the funds somewhere else though so the cable had to go!

You can stream Hulu & Netflix onto the computer and then use a cord onto your TV. So you can watch *anything* that's broadcast, but sans commercials and sans schtupid schtuff.