One reason we wanted to fast from TV was to fast from commercials and 
their impact on our desire for more stuff. When we watch TV we want lots of things – our hearts grow discontent. We want everything from pizza, to toys, to movies & video games, to mattresses and life insurance (wise purchase). Advertising is designed to remind you of what you don’t have and to compel you to go out and get it. Kids’ advertising is designed to make kids crave something so much that they nag their parents incessantly to buy it. And it all works! So anyway, it’s been nice to have a break from all that craving & whining that commercials produce in our home. But last night, it snuck in again. Our oldest soon and I sat down to read together just before bed. He chose a short comic book that I hadn’t seen before. It was about a team of superheroes that defeat the enemy and safe the world. What I didn’t realize until halfway in that the comic book was actually a marketing tool for Sketchers shoes. Each hero represented a new kind of Sketchers tennis shoe designed for kids – If you like the hero and their abilities, then you’ll definitely want the shoe! While the comic was actually fun to read and entertaining, I was struck by the fact that it is very difficult for kids to escape the pressures of marketing – advertising has even made it’s way into the hallowed ground of the bedtime story. And all this marketing has been expanded through the intersection of toys and the internet. For instances, my kids will play with a toy like Legos. They are then reminded of a website from the toy’s commercial and product packaging. Our sons can now read the web address, commit it to memory, and find it on the internet. They visit the site, play a game, browse new products, and want more stuff. Through the internet, toys are self-marketing and play is connected to commercialization.
During our second week without TV, I asked my wife Kara to reflect on some of the changes she’s noted. Here are her thoughts:
- We both have spent more time with the kids in relationship-focused activities
- Previously, we both thought that vegging-out and watching TV was relaxing, and yet we’re actually more relaxed by not doing that. Playing with the kids, talking together, sleeping more, and reading have proven to be far more relaxing.
- The kids are definitely nagging us less to buy them stuff. They actually seem more content.
- We both acknowledge that our desire to watch a show, almost any show, has caused us to rush through activities with the kids (i.e. bedtime routine) in order to plop down in front of the TV, something that we also for guilty for doing. Discontinuing TV has afforded us the ability to slow down and enjoy these activities, along with alleviating the subsequent guilt.
- Due to the coarse language, adult themes, and violence of much of adult TV, we don’t feel comfortable watching most of our favorite shows with our kids present, and thus we’ve both distanced ourselves from our kids’ activities and playtimes in order to watch a show. Kara has found many books (ibooks) just as entertaining and enjoyable, but reading them doesn’t require her to separate herself from the kids.
- Because we are not watching “boring adult shows,” the kids are also separating themselves less from our activities.
- We acknowledge just how much time we’ve wasted in passive TV watching. In passing we’ll flip the TV on while doing something else, get sucked in to an unplanned show, and get distracted from the original activity or responsibility. We’ve also been late leaving the house after passively watching a show.
- We’ve definitely slept more over the past week. Nap times are naps, instead of watching another show. We’re also going to bed earlier, probably a bit out of boredom, and partly out of a lack of over-stimulation from a TV show.
Saturday is my favorite TV day. 
Right now I am really missing English Premiere League soccer (Man City won today!) and SNL. I love putting the kids to bed, grabbing a beer, and settling down to catch up on the weeks shows, and I love Seth Meyers updating me on the week’s news… I miss TV on Saturday nights. I guess you have to take the good with the bad; the bitter with the sweet.
