Getting rid of TV

Would your husband respond well to asking if 1 night a week you could do a game night?  Maybe easing him into it would be helpful.  Have you asked him if he would mind you reading a book together?  Other than that pray and be patient.  Maybe he will come around. 

I don’t know how old your children are, but are there some craftsy things they could do on their own with limited supervision?  Our dining room table is right next to our family room and it is easy to put the children at the table and sit on the couch and talk together.  Another idea would be puzzles.  That can easily be done together as a family. 

Our evenings are spent cleaning up dinner together as a family (well, a lot of times that means me and the children while dh relaxes), then devotions, a bit of play if there is time and getting ready for bed.  I guess our dinnertime usually does run a bit long though.  There isn’t much time after dinner until bedtime.

We are now working on puzzles. Except we are working on different ones! But we are all together at the table. We do help each other out too.

My children love to read to dad also. It doesn’t take too much time. And everyone gets to enjoy one another!

I know that some might not like this. But this is something else we do as a family at night. We play Wii. We laugh, joke, root each other on and have a great time. We limit this time to one hour. We play Wii fitness, Wii play, and Wii sports together. The last has bowling, golf, tennis. boxing, etc. So we get to challange ourselves as well as try to do better each time. We don’t allow pity or bad competition! I believe this is not like video games per se. You get active, compete, and develop skillfulness. And dad/guys usually love these things! Sometimes I join them and sometimes I get my “alone” time. Or both, I play and then I leave to do something myself.  It is expensive to purchase..we saved up gift cards. And we don’t do it all the time. We just started playing in the winter. In the warm months, we are usually outside!

Also, is there an old show that dad and the kids can watch together? Then discuss? It is not helping with getting rid of the T.V. though! This might be something that can be done once a week. I don’t know how old your kids are. but Leave It To Beaver is a good one. You can discuss the situations that Wally and Beaver get themselves in. If they are older, The Waltons is a good pure family show.

If your kids are old enough, Scrabble would be a fun challenging game for all. Sometimes we play for days leaving the board out. Chess and Checkers are good too!

I know your hubby is tired and doesn’t want to think or maybe move! I know that your tired too! Just like we all are at night. You just have to make an effort at doing things with the family. The boys and dad love to wrestle, play hide and seek, and they even have rubber band fights! (not hurting each other) Dads like to be active, even when tired, it makes them feel young and like a “boy” again! If you have boys, maybe they can get “active” with dad! I am not an expert on girls though, sorry! Well I am really not an expert on boys..LOL…I just know more about them!

T.V. is a way to tune out the rest of the world and not think about anything! We didn’t have it for a long time. This past yr my hubby so wanted to get the basic so he could watch sports. We dvr the sports so we don’t get exposed to the awful commercials. And it does not take long to fast forward through until it is finished! He is not fanatical –thank goodness. But I miss the time we did have trying to find fun stuff to do! We don’t watch any junk either. Once in a while I will watch a cooking show. I am looking forward to the end of the contract!  The boys have started to be interested in basketball or golf that dad is watching. Dad loves that! Maybe your kids might like to watch some sports if dad likes too.

I know you asked for ways to cut t.v. but thought I would help include it and your kids if need be. It is definately not the best!

Hope this helps some!

I find that I really enjoy our bedtime read aloud time.  Sometimes we run over the 30 minutes.  I then spend time with my husband.  Since we homeschool, the kids can go to bed at the same time each night and I don’t worry about what time they wake up in the morning, within reason.  Of course I don’t know your husband, but there is some marketing and psychology involved here.  If you have new plans for the evening, you will have to really talk it up big and you and your kids be very excited about it.  That may draw his interest more than if you tell him he has to play game night and has to keep the tv off.  (Men don’t like to be told what to do.  lol)  You may have to come up with different names for your “game night” since he didn’t care for it as a child.  Maybe hold a show and tell or concert or something the kids can do to let dad know what they’ve been learning.   Ask your kids for ideas so they will be excited about it.  You may have to really get creative.  It is your choice whether to cut tv or not.  My husband says he is “nice” because we don’t have cable or satellite but have antenea and Netflix instead.  That does cut down on the “junk” and helps the budget.  But I still wish there were less tv.  Since I know I can’t totally get rid of the tv, I try to make suggestions for family friendly shows and if it is Netflix or a dvd, there are hardly any damaging commercials.  I also posted on the other thread about tv/ computer.  Hope that helps.