Tv time

This morning I was reading the General Conference Ensign and I was reading the talk by Elder Quentin L Cook titled "LDS Women Are Incredible!"  I really liked the talk but the one thing that really stood out to me was a quote that he had included.  It was towards the end of his talk when he was talking about the roles of sisters in the family.  One sister had said "...families are TV rich and family-time poor."

That really got me thinking about my family and how much TV we watch.  We turned of the Dish a month ago so you would think that we watch less TV right.... not necessarily.  We have Netflix through our Wii as well as Cd's by mail, we have the Internet and hook it up to the TV to watch new episodes of our favorite weekly shows and we have Cd's and VHS.  So no we don't necessarily watch less TV.  I'd say we watch the same amount, we are just paying less.

As I was thinking about this I remembered back to when I went to EFY (Especially for Youth) which is a program for kids ages 14-18.   I went to Ricks Collage in Rexburg, ID.  It was back in 1997 when it was still called Ricks.  I had a wonderful time.  My grandmother paid for my and 3 of my cousins to go.  Anyways, my point with that is that one of the talks had to do with the amount of TV we watch.  We were challenged to go without the TV for an entire month.  Did I do it?  Yes.  It was an interesting month and I watched less TV after that month for a long time.  However, things don't last forever.

I sat there finishing the article, thinking to myself that we (meaning my entire family) should go without the TV for a month and then I decided that might be a bit much.  I could go without the TV for a month if it was only me but to be completely honest when my kids are awake and I want to take a shower I turn on one of my daughter's shows and it keeps her content.  When Yana (my 5 month old) is napping and I want to sew I turn on a movie for Sarah and then she has rest time.  She lays on the couch with her pillow and a blanket and watches her show.  Sarah and now Yana also have the "Your baby can read" program.  So I decided a whole month might be a bit much.  All I really want to do is help our family find more family time - not in front of the TV.

So here is my plan.  Tonight when my husband gets home I am going to include him in our plan.  For one week we will go without the TV except for one thing.  Sarah will still be able to watch her 1/2 hour DVDs of "Your baby can read"  She watches it once in the morning and should be watching it again in the afternoon or evening.  That will be the only thing that is watched for an entire week.  To show you how much of a wimp I am I am not even going to start this until Monday.  From Wednesday on this week is going to be raining and stormy and I am not prepared for that kind of non TV entertainment for most of the week.  Instead I will cut back on the TV viewing and we will do more activities and I am going to start looking for and making activity boxes or something to that effect so on rainy days we can do something more than sit in front of the TV.

How many of you want to join me and my family for a week without the TV?  We will start Monday and go through Sunday.  Please let me know if you will join me by either posting your reply on this post and/or answering the poll to the side.