I have been intrigued by this concept for years...people who never or rarely watch TV...people who don't even own a TV???  I grew up with multiple TVs in the house; currently the TV is rarely turned off when Hubby is home. 

When S was about 6 months old, we started to monitor what we were watching when he was in the room (no more gory CSI scenes).  But instead of turning off the TV, we turned to Baby Einstein DVDs and Playhouse Disney.  Now with channels like PBS Sprout and Noggin on 24 hours a day, it's amazing how often we have the TV on.  Hubby has even gotten S watching the "old" cartoons on Boomerang.  Well, this year, Mama has had enough!  Or has she?

I must say this is harder than I thought.  I started with marking it on the calendar...this makes it real.  Every time S saw it on the calendar, he whined about it though, so I wasn't really sure if I could pull it off.  I didn't really think I would get Hubby's support on this. Well, Monday rolled around and I didn't even mention it.  Usually, I get breakfast and let him eat and watch TV while I get ready...most days it is 1 to 1 1/2 hours first thing in the morning.  Then Hubby takes over at lunch time for a couple hours and mostly the TV is on, although sometimes they go to the zoo.  I may let him watch 1 or 2 shows in the late afternoon.  When you add all this up, it is obvious this is way too much TV.  And I am a lot worse because I watch 2 - 3 hours after he goes to bed.  Why am I wasting my life like this?!

So anyway, Monday, I didn't mention TV, I didn't automatically turn it on for him and I played the distraction game a bit.  He never noticed.  I asked my mom to do the same on Monday afternoon (her day with him).  She said she finally let him watch one show on Noggin around 4:00.  Then nothing for the rest of the day.  I also watched no TV.  Monday is the day Hubby doesn't get to see either of us, so I don't know what he did.

Today was a lot harder.  I am suffering from a seasonal allergy/sinus/cough/headache thing and really did not have the energy this morning so I told S he could watch 2 shows we already had recorded...Magic School Bus and a new Wonder Pets they were advertising for Monday night that HE had put on the calendar.   I went back to bed at lunch time and I know I heard the TV on, but I'm not arguing about it.  I also let S stay up to watch American Idol with me since he took a nap this afternoon.  Tonight we both agreed Sayesha Mercado was the best even though we usually don't pick her as the best singer of the night.  Jason Castro was the worst for both of us too, but our other rankings differed. (On a side note, I mentioned that after the winner is chosen, all of the top ten idols go around the country singing concerts in different cities.  He wanted to know if they were coming here...I may have to use distraction as I am not prepared to take him to a concert at age 5)

So I don't know how tomorrow will go.  I'm still really sick and making sure I meet my minimukm responsibilities is about all I have energy for.  But I still really want to try to make this experiment work.