In honor of TV Turnoff Week, I invite you to, well, turn off your dang TV. Step away from the remote control. After a hard day of dealing with a newborn, the easiest thing is to sit there and zone out in front of TV. Believe me, I know. Alec and I would just flop there, watch some light happy fare in short 22 minute increments and plod off to bed.
Twice, we instituted a no-TV-week policy, and it was fabulous! What did we do? We talked, played games, cooked, got our finances in order, rested when we were tired, and miraculously accomplished 70% of our to-do lists. It was good.
And because of TiVo, we didn’t really miss our favorite shows and spent the next week catching up. 🙂 We’re not perfect or anything. If you want ideas of what to do with baby, search this site by age or activity-type.
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Last year, when I joined TV turnoff week, I was working part-time so that’s a good part of the day to not be tempted by the telly. Now that I have a newborn again, it’s so tempting to sit and watch Sex and the City reruns while nursing. Another temptation is to turn on the Wonder Pets as an easy distraction for Holden while nursing said newborn.
So far today, I’ve kept busy by working on my list of 101 things, starting Miss Poppy’s Guide to Raising Perfectly Happy Children, finishing The Tortilla Curtain, and drawing trains with Holden.
Wish me luck! I’m off to play Carcassonne and try to avoid Heroes.
Carcassonne- good choice!
I’ve found The Read Aloud Handbook is a great book for getting encouragement for turning off the TV. It’s now part of our standard “baby gift package” we give to new mommies.