I’ll tell you my story. 🙂
We went on vacation to Colorado last fall. Prior to this time, the girls watched about 1 video per day. They varied in length from 30 minutes to 90 minutes. Usually it was 30, but not always. We LOVE Colorado and had a great time on our trip, hiking, being outside, etc. When we got home, the girls didn’t ask about the tv because it had been several days since we had watched it. I noticed two things:
1 – The house was quieter. ALOT quieter.
2 – I head almost NO moans of “What can I do right now?” This had become a phrase in our house that was consant and one that made my blood pressure spike.
My dh and I spoke about it and we decided just to not turn it back on, not bring it up. My oldest daughter asked on about the second day, “May we watch something?” After distracting her from the idea and saying no several times, I finally pulled her aside and explained that I have noticed everything seems calmer when there is no tv on, asked her if she noticed it too, etc. etc. Her response just about floored me. She said, “Yes, you are right. And it’s more fun this way too.”
After that, I noticed that she was really the only one who ever asked about it. The younger two never really did. So, we went cold turkey for a few weeks with zero tv watching. Now, we do turn it on occasionally to watch an episode of Liberty Kids and we’ve watched a movie together here and there. But, my standard went from “minutes per day” to “never”. When your standard is never, even cheating that standard for some eduational programming or family fun will be miniscule.
My dh and I, consequently, stopped turning it on after the kids go to bed. (We used to watch 30 min every night). I am shocked at how much better we feel, how much reading we are doing and how much better our family is thriving. I am praying that our next step will be to move the tv to the basement so there is none on this floor at all. I feel like it just stares at us and is ugly. LOL I want this to be my husband’s idea, though, and not mine. 🙂
My advice is to go cold turkey for a while…until people stop asking about it daily. If you just limit it, it is still “there”…the thing they want to do and “might” get to do if they ask often enough. I found it was easier to add in occasionally after omitting it for a time.