Tuning out

It's been six days that the little box in the corner of my living room has been turned off...well, except for the Baby Einstein videos that Miles watches with his Daddy in the morning. I didn't decide to stop watching tv for six days, or a week. I just got up one morning and thought, "I won't watch tv today". It was difficult at first, I found myself looking at the clock at certain times of the day and mentally reviewing what shows were on. I have realized for awhile now that my tv habit has not been very healthy or productive. I used to revolve my schedule around NBC and ABC's. My day would go something like this:
When I woke up in the morning, if it's early enough, I'd watch the Today Show with breakfast. If I woke up later and depending on my mood, Regis and Kelly. After that is Rachel Ray, and then again depending on my mood, The View. There isn't really much on in the afternoon and that is usually when Miles and I would go out and do errands or take a nap. Still, sometimes it would just be left on in the background, with episodes of The People's Court or Days of Our Lives making up the soundtrack of cleaning up or checking my email. By 3 it's time for Ellen and then Oprah and then a non-stop marathon of syndicated sitcoms right up until prime time.
At first, it was something that helped me get through the early days with my baby. I could just let him nap in my arms while I relaxed and watched a show, and maybe drift off to sleep myself. It was something to fill up the time, and to keep my loneliness at bay. But now that my baby is crawling around everywhere and awake for most of the day, the TV becomes just this noise in the background. I became so accustomed to it that the noise was almost comforting...the house was eerily quiet without it.
So now I find myself in the silence, and as unsettling as this was at first, I feel like I am in a whole new realm of living. In the days without TV I have:

- baby proofed the bedroom and living room
- finished a book and and 1/4 through another
- played my guitar (and cleaned it since it's been gathering a bit of dust these days)
- updated Miles' baby book
- Started writing this blog

So there are many benefits that have come out of this, and I'm sure I don't have to preach to many people since we hear all the time how Americans watch too much TV, especially kids. Actually, that was one of my main reasons for turning it off in the first place. As funny as it is to see Miles mesmerized every time one of those annoying Optimum Online commercials comes on, (do they have some sort of baby subliminal messaging or something?) it's also a little disturbing. The news (which consequently I'm not watching anymore either) is full of statistics about obese children who sit in front of a TV all day instead of going outside to play. Not to mention the parade of 400 lb. kids that show up on talk shows at least once a week....(see, I shouldn't know that, I was watching way too much TV...and I don't even have cable). I don't want my child to grow up a couch potato. I grew up out in the country and I loved playing outside in the woods and riding my bike. I don't know where we'll end up living in the future, and we may not have many woods around here in Northern Jersey, but I can at least cut down on the TV time. Of course Miles is too young to really understand now (8 months today!), but I figure I need to start to change my own habits since kids learn primarily by example.
So like many parents we make sacrifices for our kids...but ultimately we reap the rewards as well, they make us better people. I am certainly a more peaceful, productive, and active person without the constant drone of the television. Plus, I get to spend more time playing and doing things with my baby, which is what this is really all about.
I don't know what will happen when September comes around and the prime time season starts again...(Grey's Anatomy!), but for now I think I can manage a quiet summer...just means more time at the beach! Perhaps when it comes time for season premieres I can at least limit myself to the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation of no more than 2 hours of television a day for children 2 years...and older.