A Year Without Cable
Our last house was pretty far out in the country and did not even offer cable service. We picked up 3 stations-PBS, NBC, and a religious channel. If the weather was perfect we would occasionally get ABC and a local channel from the next big town. We moved into our current home in 2010. When we moved in the cable guys were practically beating down our door with their amazing offers. It was unthinkable that we did not have cable! How dare we!
After a few months, we gave in and decided to try it. (This was the second time we had cable since Ivy was born. The first time was from mid-2006 to the end of 2008.) It was nice having cable and the DVR box was a cool new addition. We started watching a couple shows religiously. That couple grew and we began adding more new shows to our must-see list. I would get busy with school or simply real life and come back to find the DVR full! It began to feel more like part of my “TO DO” list than true enjoyment. It was one night as I was watching old reruns that it hit me – I used to read at night! Now I was watching reruns simply because they were on. Not because I really wanted to! What was up with that? How much time was I losing to the TV each week? Far more important was What else could I be doing with that time? What was I missing out on? Does anyone look back on their lives and think “I wish I would have watched more TV?” No, they think, “I wish I would have spent more time with my kids. I wish I would have stopped to smell the roses. I wish I would have traveled more. I wish I would have had more experiences. I wish I had not wasted so much time!”
The cable is now turned off and we have vowed to not think about it for one full year! I will openly admit that this affects my husband and Ivy way more than it does Isabella and me. My husband works weird hours and is often eating dinner alone long after the rest of us are in bed. Ivy is a preteen girl who is more concerned with what is normal. She actually watched much less TV than the rest of us but took it worse…Her response was “Are people going to think it’s weird?” I told her she doesn’t have to tell them. It’s not like they are going to ask. It is assumed in the suburbs that we are all cookie-cutter clones so no worries.
I will do an update in a year and let you know how things went! Will we have more time for other things? Will we spend more time together? Will we read more? Will we pick up new hobbies or learn something new?
“Do people ever think I wish I had watched more TV when the end comes?”