Turn off TV? What???

What happens when you turn off the tv or technology for that matter? We did a little experiment in my house and I'd like to share it with you. When my son was little I was a weekender at the hospital so that meant that I could spend M-F with him and work Friday and Saturday nights. During this time we had a lot of "no tv days". He was really too young to pay much attention to it anyway and I found it to be a distraction to my husband and I spending quality time with him. So we turned it off. To be clear we did not turn off the cable. We simply did not turn on the tv for many days. I found my mind to be much clearer and I even slept better. (I know that sounds totally hokey right?) truthfully I grew up in a home that didn't watch much tv to begin with and as an adult I usually only have it on for the noise without actually watching what is really on there. Now that our son is 4 and our daughter is 18 months I have been wanting to do an experiment to see if taking some time off of tv and technology how they would do. As sweet as my son is he seems to display a bit of an attitude if he's had to much tv or iPad time (learning apps included). So one morning I decided to turn it all off. I do believe that children learn from our behaviors. My husband and I work on computers at in this area of life so when I'm off work I do not want to see another computer for days. But our son does see us use our phones. Not in excess but I realized that hey he is 4 years old for crying out loud and has not learned how to budget his time. And he has not yet gotten the hang of being ok if he doesn't get his way. These are things that we need to teach him and display in our own behavior at the same time. So anyway back to turning off the tv. I had a habit of turning it on for them to watch while I made breakfast or took a shower or something like that. And when I realized they don't need to be entertained while I do those things it was so easy to just not turn it on at all! We are so lucky to have littles who love each other and love being together all the time. (Seriously all the time) and they play together and have a wonderful give and take relationship. That alone makes me want to nurture that friendship and not have distractions that could take away from it. After just one day I could already see a big difference in attitude and behavior (in my son AND myself). I found I had more patience and gentleness. I did not get frustrated as easily. So really...what happens when you turn off the TV? You PLAY! With trains, dinosaurs, little people princesses, read a ton of books, sticks and frogs outside, ride bikes (or trikes), take walks, dig in the garden for dinner vegetable or to plant new plants for this season. And no we did not do all of this in one day. Hehe! This was spanned over a lot of days. We had many rainy days in that span also so we did the indoor things then I put the kids in the tub to blow bubbles later in the evening. I notice much clearer minds for me and my family. We all sleep better, make better decisions about what we eat and are not tired as much. We will for sure be continuing the "no TV" days around here:) I have a sweet friend who I told about what we were doing and her response was "um what? How do you NOT turn on the TV when you have young kids?". For me it is simple. For others it may not be so. While I rather like this new method of the day, not everyone responds to it as we do. Other kids may not be effected by the technology as we seems to be. But it's good for everyone to turn it off and go do something else. 😃