Has anyone gotten rid of their TV (S)?

If so, how do you spend your days if you have children?

(not that I think tv is a necessity when you have a child, but I am just curious what you fill EVERY day with, around the clock)

Have you noticed a change in the family dynamics since getting rid of it?

Hi, RZ! Thanks for asking!! Yes, we got rid of our TV about 15 years ago, I think. Changing the family dynamics? Absolutely! I grew up sitting in front of a TV, eating frozen dinners on TV trays, arranging my schedule around getting home for a certain show. We raised our family for the first 15 years or so with a TV...but now I would never go back to it! More than once, one or the other of our children has said, "How does anyone find time to watch TV?"

I will add that within the last two or three years we have gotten a DVD player, and now we do occasionally watch a movie...maybe once or twice a week, if that. But I have absolutely no desire to go back to TV, and our youngest children have never had it so they don't miss it! Our grown children all watch movies once in a while, like we do, but none have regular TV.

So, what do we do? We play games (Rummikub, Dominoes, Pinochle--last winter, our then 10 and 13 year olds loved beating their parents at Pinochle!--backgammon, chess, chinese checkers, and so on and so on...); we read books, to ourselves or aloud to each other; we do yard work in the summer or household projects in winter; we enjoy our pets and outdoor animals (horses and dogs right now, but we've also had goats, cows, chickens, sheep, etc...to care for); we talk; we listen to audiobooks together; we prepare and eat meals together; we play piano; we take up hobbies; we go for drives; we draw pictures; we put on plays; we visit with friends or have friends over; we write letters...

As far as family dynamics, our children get much more of our time and attention than when we watched TV regularly. We have time to really talk to them (and they to each other), and they're used to opening up to us now. We interact so much better with them now than we did! We also avoid an awful lot of "garbage in" that we'd have to spend a lot of time undoing; I am appalled when I catch a glimpse of some of today's prime time television. With movies, we have so much more control over what they're seeing, and we can always push the "eject" button on the remote. Do we miss anything? Well, sometimes we'll look up the website for Animal Planet or the History Channel and watch an episode or two of something educational (we homeschool, so that's school for us), but for the most part I don't think our children have suffered from the lack of a TV.

Off my soapbox now...but thanks for asking, truly, because for me it's an issue that I feel pretty strongly about, and I love to have the chance to share my heart on it! :)

Thank you for sharing!

How do you play xbox 360 or the Wii then ? :cry::cry::cry:

I've been trying to get my wife to get rid of our TV for nearly a decade now. She ain't havin' it. Generally, though, our family watches very little television. Our 6 year old daughter watches cartoons maybe two hours a day (very controlled which ones she gets to watch). And my wife and I watch some news magazine shows we like once a week like 60 Minutes and 20/20. We also do THREE reality shows when they are on: Survivor, The Amazing Race, and American Idol.

That's pretty much it. No soaps, no sitcoms, no TV series, no talk shows...except the occasional I Love Lucy rerun.

We have a Tivo and everything we watch comes through there so there are no commercials either...

I gave my wife a standing offer a few years back that if we ever get rid of the T.V. whatever savings we get off of that will become her personal allowance. She hasn't taken me up on it yet. :(

Ah well...

Has anyone gotten rid of their TV (S)?

If so, how do you spend your days if you have children?

(not that I think tv is a necessity when you have a child, but I am just curious what you fill EVERY day with, around the clock)

Have you noticed a change in the family dynamics since getting rid of it?

I got rid of our TVs about three years ago. I had a repentance experience and, by God's power, kicked one addiction and in the process He made me aware of a number of other idolatrous addictions. The television was an idol to me, which I spent hours and hours watching and I know, without question, the television impacted by worldview away from God. In addition, I had a rock and roll addiction and a Playstation2 addiction. None of these idols glorified God and were typically outwardly blasphemous towards Him. As I was kicking those things in the trash, I was setting my affection upon God and spending time studying His Word, studying about His Word, listening to sermons, separating from the church I was in, witnessing where I could and doing whatever I could to put God first in my life.

Later, my wife and I found ourselves compelled to get into fostering children and we eventually wound up adopting three. The two eldest children had a number of learning, attentiveness and discipline issues. I believe that providing them a loving home, changing their diet and separating them from the world's amusements caused a noticeable change in their ability to learn, their ability to sit still and their ability to mind the instruction of their parents and elders.

As to the question of how do we spend our days? My wife homeschool's so the days are filled with training and household chores. In the evening we typically have dinner together, followed by "Family Altar" where we sing, pray and study the word together. We then hang out and play together or read together and it's usually not too long before it's time to go to bed. We're rarely bored and I don't believe I've ever had a moment where I wished for a television to fill up my time with. I've not noticed my children wishing for it either and they've never really given us much grief about not having a TV.

Finally, I would encourage anyone interested in the TV topic to consider reading The Plug-In Drug by Marie Winn and a message by an old pastor named Lester Roloff called The Idol of the Hour (http://www.newtestamentbaptistdover.com/the_idol_of_the_hour.htm).

I would also encourage meditation of the following scriptures...


"Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." - Ephesians 5:14-16


"Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners." - 1 Corinthians 15:33


"Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." - 1 Corinthians 10:7

"If we keep sending our children to Caesar for their education, then we should't be surprised when they come back Romans." That, is a great quote!

That, is a great quote!


I love Voddie.:pp

I love Voddie.:pp Aaah, I didn't realize it was his quote. He's a good man and a good pastor. May God bless him and his congregation.

Why would you want to get rid of your tv's?

Why would you want to get rid of your tv's?
Because there's next to nothing Godly or eddifying that comes through watching television. More often than not, what comes through the tube is the opposite.

How do you play xbox 360 or the Wii then ? :cry::cry::cry:
You don't hook up the TV to cable or connect it to the doodad that allows you to watch regular TV. The TV is still usable, its just all you will get on the differant channels is snow.

Edit: But you still must connect the X-Box to the TV ;)

I don't watch too much TV any more either, there is usually not much on that I am interested in, and most of the stuff thats on there tends to be pretty bad. MTv is one of the pretty bad stations, you won't believe what it can have on it... its like an alter to teenage navel gazing and sex.

Has anyone gotten rid of their TV (S)?

If so, how do you spend your days if you have children?

(not that I think tv is a necessity when you have a child, but I am just curious what you fill EVERY day with, around the clock)

Have you noticed a change in the family dynamics since getting rid of it?

We got rid of our tv a year ago, and it's been one of the best decision we have made.

None of us had any trouble filling up the time we used to spend watching tv. Granted, I have 4 kids who can play with each other, but I can't recall them ever whining about being bored without the tv.

How do you play xbox 360 or the Wii then ? :cry::cry::cry:

Believe it or not, if every xbox and wii disappeared from the world, the earth would keep on spinning.

How do you play xbox 360 or the Wii then ? :cry::cry::cry:
I have live and waiting for Gears of War 2!!!!

I still have my Tv and im not planning to get rid of it.I like watching tv shows.....:)

I would consider getting rid of my TV's but I like sports too much. Also, there are several quality Christian programs I watch. I get about 8 Christian channels on Direct TV.

But I can see why people ditch their TV's. Almost every prime time network show is garbage and not even worth the bandwidth. The only remotely interesting show I've seen in the last several years is Lost on ABC. I've given up completely on Prime Time TV because the content is so liberal and offensive.

I don't know what anyone else wrote but 3 years ago I had enough of the t.v. I actually sold our 42 inch 3 month old flat screen and after 2 weeks of going stir crazy my kids and I realized that there was so much more to life than tv. I am so glad I did it. I do have the ability to put on very selective movies on a very tiny portable tv or computer on sick days or when I am in a bind, but usually they are school or learning videos.

We read lots of books, play games, do lots of art, playdough is a hit and painting, go to lots of places together as a family....
the first two weeks are a killer though. I realized after a week how society driven I was and how adicted to the tube I was. It was so humbling to see that I was so blind to how much smut I allowed in the house and my view of sex was so frivilous. Now I gasp when I see real tv. I can't believe the trash just on regular kids shows...
lots of prayer.

TV in Malaysia too many addictive programs to watch even though there isn't any Christian channel.:B

I realy want to do this and my husband is on board with it...I'm just kind of reluctant b/c it's hard to imagine no tv when I've always had it, KWIM?

Today I kept the tv off, though, and had on the radio (christian station we listen to) and it's been great.

Has anyone gotten rid of their TV (S)?

Yes for approximately four months. I didn't get rid of t.v. it's just our cable was expensive and our regular t.v. doesn't show w/o it.



If so, how do you spend your days if you have children?

[quote]


We spent our days reading, going to the library and park. I rented movies and cartoons from the library.




Have you noticed a change in the family dynamics since getting rid of it?


The kids found ways to entertain themselves and did a lot more reading. We also got a lot more things done instead of putting them off while their "favorite show" (which is usually EVERY show) was on. I have t.v. again and I'm already regretting it.

Do you all feel the same way about the Internet? It has worse stuff on it than tv. You can choose what to do with both so why does one go and one doesn't? I'm not critcizing your desicion to get rid of your tv, that's your prerogative, but I feel it's getting a bad rep.

Do you all feel the same way about the Internet? It has worse stuff on it than tv. You can choose what to do with both so why does one go and one doesn't? I'm not critcizing your desicion to get rid of your tv, that's your prerogative, but I feel it's getting a bad rep.

I don't really MIND having cable, it's just that if we're not going to be watching it, I don't want to pay for it. KWIM?

If we can control ourselves and keep the tv off most of the time, I have no problem keeping cable...which we're going to now since it's not really too much to keep it (I had called today ready to cancel it which they then gave us a major discount). With the internet, I have control of myself with that.

I think families get rid of cable/tv b/c it's so the children don't sit and watch it or the family doesn't sit and watch and waste time when they could be doing things together, etc. If someone had the same problem with internet, I'm sure the same thinking applies to that.

I just felt we were lazy as a family and being able to watch tv a lot enabled that laziness. But, after talking w/ my husband last night and how things went today, I think we'll be able to control it. If we find we can't, then the extended cable will go. I personally don't watch tv, but I would let my daughter watch it and he would watch it when he was home while playing w/ them. It's just a distraction that doesn't need to be there when quality time is happening...He and I could be studying the Bible, reading a book, or doing something together (playing a game, etc) and as for our daughter (youngest is a baby), she can be doing things w/ me or playing....I had music on in the background today, which I think worship songs are better for her to be hearing as background noise then a cartoon.

there is such things as filters for computers and covenant eyes...not so much for the crud on tv and if a commercial comes on your stuck.
although the ads on the side of my computer are getting worse. yikes@@~~!!

Do you all feel the same way about the Internet? It has worse stuff on it than tv. You can choose what to do with both so why does one go and one doesn't? I'm not critcizing your desicion to get rid of your tv, that's your prerogative, but I feel it's getting a bad rep.I don't think for some people the content of the Internet is too much of an issue, as they can have self control over what they click on. What can be the problem however, is how much time one spends on it. The Internet, like the Tv, can be a real time sucker. You get on it 'just for a little while,' and before you know it several hours have passed when you finally look away from the computer screen. Too much of this can lead to lack of exercise, time not spent with people offscreen, missed opportunities, etc. Have you ever heard of World of Warcraft? This is a MMoRPG, which stands for: Massively Multiplayer online Role Playing Game. (I don't know if you already know about this stuff, you might, but you never know ;)) This is a game that is notorious for being real addictive and people have been known to spend 15 hours a day on it for years. Sometimes the Internet entirely replaces the Tv in time wasted.

We haven't got rid of our tv yet and that is only because I am pregnant with twins and can't sit up to play with the kids. Once I deliver the babies I would love to get rid of tv. We used to do crafts and play at the park. Or read books and watch a movie in the evenings to wind down.

I don't really think that tv's are too much of a 'threat'.

You can control what you watch on them..use a t.v guide and if commercials are bad just turn it off when they come on.


The internet is far worse for harbouring evil things

Has anyone gotten rid of their TV (S)?

If so, how do you spend your days if you have children?

(not that I think tv is a necessity when you have a child, but I am just curious what you fill EVERY day with, around the clock)

Have you noticed a change in the family dynamics since getting rid of it?

Got rid of cable..because we didn't have enough money to pay the bill. I haven't really noticed anything too different...as we didn't really watch that much TV anyway. I mostly watch it for political commentary and a few shows here and there. There's not much good on nor original nowadays anyway...same old recycled crap.

My fiance doesn't want us to have a TV when we get married. I think at some point several months ago this came up and I agreed to it. Now I wish I could go back and discuss it again lol. I'm just kind of thinking...I mean, why can't we have a TV and just use moderation? I'm not a TV-zombie type anyhow, but it's good to have for the news occasionally, and things like "It's a Wonderful Life" at Christmas, cooking shows, History channel...these can be very edifying and entertaining, without being immoral. As with anything it's all about moderation and temperance IMO.

Now when we start having kids, I think I'd be more likely to just say no TV, period. That's what I think now, but who knows what'll happen when that time comes.

We threw the tv out a couple of years ago and we don't regret it at all...... the cable was too expensive for what we were watching...... and now we talk again during supper instead of watching tv, we have time for Biblestudy and other things...... we do have a few movies, but we can watch those on our computers....... :) I don't regret at all getting rid of the tv.......

Love you,
Mieke :kiss:

Last year, when I started homeschooling, we had many *TV* issues facing us as my homeschooled child started randomly turning the TV on during the day and my High School child used TV has an excuse not to do her homework.

Since then, we have learned that TV is a privilage and time spent with it on in the home is limited to earning the privilage by completing daily school/homework and chores (as well as manners and behavior).

This is a paradigm shift for all of us and it's great to see them do things together (they are 7 yrs apart in age). Many evenings, we will play games or they will put on a skit or play for me. We spend a couple of nights weekly studying the Bible together and sharing our questions and ideas on what we are currently reading. We also share what we enjoy or learn from books we have read or are reading.

So TV stayed, but it's like the brown mustard in the fridge. It's complimentary when used, but not necessary for most occasions.

So TV stayed, but it's like the brown mustard in the fridge. It's complimentary when used, but not necessary for most occasions.

That is a bad comparison, seeing how mustard is evil in all circumstances. :lol: