On coming home from a week spent working with some research colleagues, my husband was inspired by one of them to decrease our TV watching at home. His colleague has a few kids (ranging in age from 7 to 16) and apparently they don't even own a television. The kids are smart, savvy and successful and don't even miss watching TV. Apparently they have plenty of other things to do, like art and science projects, reading, etc.
Starting yesterday we are implementing a "No TV for a week" 6-week plan. It's going to be 1 week on, 1 week off. So for this week (Sunday to Sunday) we can't watch any TV. Next week we can choose to watch TV if we want, but the week after it is mandatory no TV. I am actually looking forward to this! Especially when my husband is away I tend to watch movies for no particular reason, when I could easily be doing something else more enriching. My plan for tonight is to bake a pear-and-chocolate cake and do a yoga practice. That sounds better than watching TV for a couple hours.
For my daughter I think it will be a little more difficult. She's only 4, but she often wants to decompress by sitting and staring at Angelina Ballerina for half an hour. But, she made it through the day yesterday, and even helped her dad make dinner instead of watching something! We will see how it goes for her on the no TV weeks...
