We quarantined Kevin (I'm such a loving wife, leaving him in his time of need...) and went to my parents' house so we wouldn't catch it. As a result, Max got away with more time watching movies than usual. To top it off, it just so happened to be his birthday weekend when this all went down, so he had a bunch of new Thomas DVDs.
After a few days at my parents' house (and after getting a flu shot), we headed back home. A little less than a week later, Max caught something. It might have been the flu, but since he'd gotten the shot almost a week before, he got a very very mild case. But since he didn't want to do much of anything for a few days, he, again, spent more time in front of the television. By the time he was on the mend, I'd gotten used to having the TV as my babysitter. I spent more time on my novel (which, for anyone interested, I'm almost to 200 pages!) and on the Internet, blogging and stuff. I didn't totally neglect him, but I definitely wasn't having the one-on-one time with him. Our playing/eating/cleaning routines were totally off.
Around Halloween, Max was throwing more tantrums again. He'd been doing so well, but they'd started creeping back. Then on Halloween night, he threw a host of fits on various neighbors' doorsteps (he was so confused to why no one would let him in their houses to play). The next day, when I went to pick him up from Nursery, he threw another tantrum because he didn't want to leave. Not only was it embarrassing, but it was just so frustrating. I was at my wits' end! I began to question my mothering skills yet again.
And then, in a moment of inspiration (and I mean that - it was one of those moments of spiritual insight), a thought suddenly came to me: less television. The boy needed a break from the tube. I decided then and there that we weren't going to have the TV on at all during the day for an entire week. My feelings were affirmed by the book, It's a Boy! by Michael Thompson. It's an awesome book about the development of boys - I highly suggest it to anyone involved with raising boys. Anyway, I read in the section about 3 & 4-year-olds that lots of boys throw furious tantrums at this age (phew!) and he also mentioned that TV time can be a problem since it's such a passive activity.
Convinced that going TV-free was at least worth a try, I told Kevin about my idea and he was fully supportive. So, I packed the Thomas DVDs out of sight and braced myself for the chaos and Cat 5 tantrums headed my way. I was also worried how I would get anything done without even my usual two hours of TV babysitting. It was my grand TV-free experiment.
We started on Sunday, November 1. When we got home from church, he asked to watch Hero of the Rails. We told him no and, instead, spent the time reading book after book. We took a family nap. We played with his trains (and he played by himself). We headed to my parents' house for dinner and had a nice time there. There was no mention of movies or TV. The next day went the same way except that he didn't even ask to watch anything. Day 3 was the same, and so on. Here are some of the highlights of my experiment...
The weather was gorgeous last week - highs in the mid to upper sixties. And the leaves are starting to fall in our yard. He loved burying himself in the leaves.
Max rediscovered his tricycle and we did a few trips around our cul-de-sac.
I definitely fell behind on the housework. I'm trying to catch up today. By the way, aren't I brave to post a picture? Thank you, thank you...
We spent a lot of time in a "tent". I know the pictures are blurry, but I'd challenge you to get a clear picture with a blanket over your head while also using your leg as a tent pole (see far right of picture). This was one of my favorite parts of TV-free week. He'd just come up to me and say, "Mommy, come snuggle in a tent." Love it.

There was more baking without the television. Baking is one of our favorite things to do together. Here, we made banana bread bites (check out my frugal blog for the details and recipe). Max especially enjoyed coating everything (including himself) with powdered sugar.
Without the television, we spent more time being artsy. First with the sidwalk chalk (he had me draw and label all the Thomas & Friends trains - I purposefully left out my horrible drawings)...
..and then to the watercolors.
Of course, we spent a good majority of our time reading books. He particularly loved If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and No David!. We even rediscovered a book I'd bought at a yard sale a couple years ago, Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever.
He immediately found the pages about trains in it.
Which leads to the many, many hours of train time we spent together.The results of my experiment: no tantrums, no time-outs, and a much happier boy. He didn't even seem to miss his DVDs or episodes of Sesame Street and Dinosaur Train. That doesn't mean I'm going to eliminate television completely from our routine. Everything in moderation. Yesterday, we decided to let him watch one of his Thomas DVDs after church. He loved it and when it was over, he ejected it from the PlayStation 3, put it back in its case, turned off the PS3 and TV, and headed upstairs to play with his trains, building the tracks and narrating his little trains' adventures.
The best result of my experiment? I reconnected with my little boy. He's growing so fast and I know that I only have a few more years to have him home all the time, completely to myself. What a waste it would be to spend too much of that short time sitting in front of the television. How much I would miss! And that was the biggest surprise of the experiment: I needed TV-free week as much as he did.




















