Our TV Turnoff Week got off to a lousy start — on Monday, both girls were home from school sick.

Normally, television is a treat when you are so sick you can’t do anything but lay on the sofa. Combine that with my need to get some work done – and I allowed them to watch a couple hours of I Love Lucy.

But that was a minor setback and did not derail us from our mission for the rest of the week.

I was happy with the girls’ ability to find something to entertain themselves — I didn’t hear a lot of “I’m bored!” — but they also spent more time playing together. And playing together invariably ends with the younger in tears because her sister either a) hurt her or b) said something mean to her.

So, more fights and more tears.

I stuck to my commitment to stay away from the laptop in the afternoons after the girls got home from school. We made cookies one afternoon but otherwise didn’t spend the time completely engaged with each other. However, since my nose was not stuck in a screen, the perception that I was available was there, and that made for some peaceful afternoons.

Over the course of the week, we realized how easily we turn to the television or computer out of habit.

I don’t think the experience will move us to further limit our screen time since we already allow only an hour-and-a-half a day.

But maybe now we’ll pause and think, do I really want do this right now?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 12:34 pm and is filed under Television, Family Time, The Goals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.