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Is there life without TV? Can you make it through the week without your Today show, your soaps and your Survivor? Do you have the discipline to give up your viewing habit for seven days? If you think you do, you can join millions of others around the world for TV-Turnoff Week, April 23 – 29. The nonprofit group issuing the challenge, the TV-Turnoff Network, says when we turn off our TV we "reclaim time for our families, our friends, and for ourselves."
How much time? Well, the average American watches more than four hours of television a day. That adds up to more than 60 days a year. Even if you watch just a couple of hours of TV a day, you’re still giving up one month a year to tune in. And, often, when we tune in the TV we tune out those around us. As TV-watching increases, family interaction decreases. Forty percent of American families have on the TV while they eat dinner. That’s potential communication time that could be spent asking our kids how their day was, or complimenting our spouse on a well-cooked meal.
The positive effects of less TV on family life are seen in research by Eastern Washington University Professor Barbara Brock. She found that parents in TV-free homes have about an hour of meaningful conversation every day with their children, compared to the national average of 38 minutes a week. Marriages also benefit from a TV-free environment. Eighty percent of those Brock interviewed felt like their unions were stronger since they gave up TV.
Consider the impact of TV-watching on children. Jean Healy of Harvard believes that watching TV instead of reading may actually influence the physical structure of the brain as it develops. That theory has significant ramifications when you consider that one-year-olds in the U.S. watch an average of six hours of TV a week. And as television watching among children has increased, so has childhood obesity. Dr. William Dietz of the Centers for Disease Control says, "Almost anything uses more energy than watching TV."
So is there a middle ground in the vast TV wasteland? In his book, TV: The Great Escape, Bob DeMoss says the ultimate goal is to "regain a sense of balance with the use of TV." We need to change our habits. Instead of flipping through the channels "just to see what’s on," try scheduling ahead for specific programs. Instead of letting your kids plop down in front of the TV as soon as they walk in the door, have alternative activities and ideas ready for them. And instead of arguing with your spouse over the remote or watching TV in separate rooms, do something together that you both enjoy. Family should be the center of our homelife – not TV.
How can you fill those hours once you trim your TV time? Play board games. Go for a bike ride. Finish that book you started six months ago. Bake cookies. Build a model ship. Plant flowers. Have a real conversation with your husband or wife.
One mom in the DeMoss book said this after a TV-free week, "No one seems to notice the TV isn’t on. I made curtains for the kitchen… Keith has just finished our second bathroom, which he started four years ago. Our third grader has read two books this week and our five year-old and I take the dog for many more walks than we ever did before."
Yes, that’s a far cry from the drama of a do-or-die moment on ER or a "soul-searching" hour of Oprah. But it is in those day-to-day activities – away from the TV – that our family life flourishes, building relationships for the present and memories for a lifetime.
How much time? Well, the average American watches more than four hours of television a day. That adds up to more than 60 days a year. Even if you watch just a couple of hours of TV a day, you’re still giving up one month a year to tune in. And, often, when we tune in the TV we tune out those around us. As TV-watching increases, family interaction decreases. Forty percent of American families have on the TV while they eat dinner. That’s potential communication time that could be spent asking our kids how their day was, or complimenting our spouse on a well-cooked meal.
The positive effects of less TV on family life are seen in research by Eastern Washington University Professor Barbara Brock. She found that parents in TV-free homes have about an hour of meaningful conversation every day with their children, compared to the national average of 38 minutes a week. Marriages also benefit from a TV-free environment. Eighty percent of those Brock interviewed felt like their unions were stronger since they gave up TV.
Consider the impact of TV-watching on children. Jean Healy of Harvard believes that watching TV instead of reading may actually influence the physical structure of the brain as it develops. That theory has significant ramifications when you consider that one-year-olds in the U.S. watch an average of six hours of TV a week. And as television watching among children has increased, so has childhood obesity. Dr. William Dietz of the Centers for Disease Control says, "Almost anything uses more energy than watching TV."
So is there a middle ground in the vast TV wasteland? In his book, TV: The Great Escape, Bob DeMoss says the ultimate goal is to "regain a sense of balance with the use of TV." We need to change our habits. Instead of flipping through the channels "just to see what’s on," try scheduling ahead for specific programs. Instead of letting your kids plop down in front of the TV as soon as they walk in the door, have alternative activities and ideas ready for them. And instead of arguing with your spouse over the remote or watching TV in separate rooms, do something together that you both enjoy. Family should be the center of our homelife – not TV.
How can you fill those hours once you trim your TV time? Play board games. Go for a bike ride. Finish that book you started six months ago. Bake cookies. Build a model ship. Plant flowers. Have a real conversation with your husband or wife.
One mom in the DeMoss book said this after a TV-free week, "No one seems to notice the TV isn’t on. I made curtains for the kitchen… Keith has just finished our second bathroom, which he started four years ago. Our third grader has read two books this week and our five year-old and I take the dog for many more walks than we ever did before."
Yes, that’s a far cry from the drama of a do-or-die moment on ER or a "soul-searching" hour of Oprah. But it is in those day-to-day activities – away from the TV – that our family life flourishes, building relationships for the present and memories for a lifetime.
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Is there life without TV? Can you make it through the week without your Today show, your soaps and your Survivor? Do you have the discipline to give up your viewing habit for seven days? If you think you do, you can join millions of others around the world for TV-Turnoff Week, April 23 – 29. The nonprofit group issuing the challenge, the TV-Turnoff Network, says when we turn off our TV we "reclaim time for our families, our friends, and for ourselves."
How much time? Well, the average American watches more than four hours of television a day. That adds up to more than 60 days a year. Even if you watch just a couple of hours of TV a day, you’re still giving up one month a year to tune in. And, often, when we tune in the TV we tune out those around us. As TV-watching increases, family interaction decreases. Forty percent of American families have on the TV while they eat dinner. That’s potential communication time that could be spent asking our kids how their day was, or complimenting our spouse on a well-cooked meal.
The positive effects of less TV on family life are seen in research by Eastern Washington University Professor Barbara Brock. She found that parents in TV-free homes have about an hour of meaningful conversation every day with their children, compared to the national average of 38 minutes a week. Marriages also benefit from a TV-free environment. Eighty percent of those Brock interviewed felt like their unions were stronger since they gave up TV.
Consider the impact of TV-watching on children. Jean Healy of Harvard believes that watching TV instead of reading may actually influence the physical structure of the brain as it develops. That theory has significant ramifications when you consider that one-year-olds in the U.S. watch an average of six hours of TV a week. And as television watching among children has increased, so has childhood obesity. Dr. William Dietz of the Centers for Disease Control says, "Almost anything uses more energy than watching TV."
So is there a middle ground in the vast TV wasteland? In his book, TV: The Great Escape, Bob DeMoss says the ultimate goal is to "regain a sense of balance with the use of TV." We need to change our habits. Instead of flipping through the channels "just to see what’s on," try scheduling ahead for specific programs. Instead of letting your kids plop down in front of the TV as soon as they walk in the door, have alternative activities and ideas ready for them. And instead of arguing with your spouse over the remote or watching TV in separate rooms, do something together that you both enjoy. Family should be the center of our homelife – not TV.
How can you fill those hours once you trim your TV time? Play board games. Go for a bike ride. Finish that book you started six months ago. Bake cookies. Build a model ship. Plant flowers. Have a real conversation with your husband or wife.
One mom in the DeMoss book said this after a TV-free week, "No one seems to notice the TV isn’t on. I made curtains for the kitchen… Keith has just finished our second bathroom, which he started four years ago. Our third grader has read two books this week and our five year-old and I take the dog for many more walks than we ever did before."
Yes, that’s a far cry from the drama of a do-or-die moment on ER or a "soul-searching" hour of Oprah. But it is in those day-to-day activities – away from the TV – that our family life flourishes, building relationships for the present and memories for a lifetime.
How much time? Well, the average American watches more than four hours of television a day. That adds up to more than 60 days a year. Even if you watch just a couple of hours of TV a day, you’re still giving up one month a year to tune in. And, often, when we tune in the TV we tune out those around us. As TV-watching increases, family interaction decreases. Forty percent of American families have on the TV while they eat dinner. That’s potential communication time that could be spent asking our kids how their day was, or complimenting our spouse on a well-cooked meal.
The positive effects of less TV on family life are seen in research by Eastern Washington University Professor Barbara Brock. She found that parents in TV-free homes have about an hour of meaningful conversation every day with their children, compared to the national average of 38 minutes a week. Marriages also benefit from a TV-free environment. Eighty percent of those Brock interviewed felt like their unions were stronger since they gave up TV.
Consider the impact of TV-watching on children. Jean Healy of Harvard believes that watching TV instead of reading may actually influence the physical structure of the brain as it develops. That theory has significant ramifications when you consider that one-year-olds in the U.S. watch an average of six hours of TV a week. And as television watching among children has increased, so has childhood obesity. Dr. William Dietz of the Centers for Disease Control says, "Almost anything uses more energy than watching TV."
So is there a middle ground in the vast TV wasteland? In his book, TV: The Great Escape, Bob DeMoss says the ultimate goal is to "regain a sense of balance with the use of TV." We need to change our habits. Instead of flipping through the channels "just to see what’s on," try scheduling ahead for specific programs. Instead of letting your kids plop down in front of the TV as soon as they walk in the door, have alternative activities and ideas ready for them. And instead of arguing with your spouse over the remote or watching TV in separate rooms, do something together that you both enjoy. Family should be the center of our homelife – not TV.
How can you fill those hours once you trim your TV time? Play board games. Go for a bike ride. Finish that book you started six months ago. Bake cookies. Build a model ship. Plant flowers. Have a real conversation with your husband or wife.
One mom in the DeMoss book said this after a TV-free week, "No one seems to notice the TV isn’t on. I made curtains for the kitchen… Keith has just finished our second bathroom, which he started four years ago. Our third grader has read two books this week and our five year-old and I take the dog for many more walks than we ever did before."
Yes, that’s a far cry from the drama of a do-or-die moment on ER or a "soul-searching" hour of Oprah. But it is in those day-to-day activities – away from the TV – that our family life flourishes, building relationships for the present and memories for a lifetime.