Good-Bye Cable...

I never understood when I was growing up as to why we couldn't have cable.  I hated only having basic tv!  There was hardly ever anything good on...especially on the weekends, and I had serious doubts that cable was that corrupting.  I was happy when I went away to college and had cable in my room!  (Now looking back at it, I realize that a lot of time was spent watching useless shows when homework and studying could have been done, and as a result I could have possibly had a better grade in a few of my classes!)  I felt spoiled and it was great!  There were soo many things out there that I felt that I had missed out on and I promised that I would not do that to my kids.  I wanted them to be educated in "pop culture" and to know what everyone was talking about.  I thought that it would be easy to make sure they could watch cable without being introduced to the "bad" shows.

So when Preston and I got married...as soon as we thought we could afford it...we got cable!  And HD and DVR!  Yeah!  It was heaven!  Till I realized that cable doesn't always have anything much better on then basic tv.  TBS and other channels that play movies on the weekends are on a cycle and after awhile you have seen all the movies that are going to air on tv.  Then Cate got old enough to watch tv.  At first it was nice to have a few hours in the morning to myself.  But then commercialization began to overtake my little girl.  I started hearing her say, "Mommy, I want that!"  I also wasn't so sure how I felt about some of the content of the shows on nick jr.  Why do the characters have to talk like little babies??  And do I really want my daughter to learn how to count in Spanish before she does in English?? (Thank-you Dora!)  Then our priest gave a homily at church.....

It was about how his parents were horrified about some of things that were on tv when he was a kid...think like the Brady Bunch and such.  And that the content of what we let our kids see now is so overly sexualized and demoralized, yet we seem to miss it, because we ourselves have already been brainwashed with the stuff!  It really hit me hard...I also started to think about the time we spent in front of the tv and was beginning to get concerned about my mothering.  (Now I know Cate isn't in front of the tv that much, especially compared to some kids, but I was feeling really guilty about the 1-2 that she does spend!)  This is time I should be doing something more constructive with her.

About this same time our cable company decided to switch providers and go private, which was going to raise our bill.  It was the perfect time to say "adios" to the cable!

So today the cable man came and took our box away....We will see how it goes.  Preston is a little worried about not having HD...but I think he'll manage!  We still have access to the basic channels and we have Netflix.  So I am pretty sure we will survive.  I am really excited to see the change this will create.  I am hoping for more quality family time and a daughter who is not being constantly bombarded with commercialization!  I never thought I would be happy to say good-bye to cable...but with a cheerful shout, I cry, "Good-Bye!"