Our Last Year of TV?

Either motherhood has turned me into a prude, or things are crazy in network-land.

Earlier this week, I was still recovering from a 2-day bout of fever, and sat in front of the TV for 2 straight hours watching 4 sit-coms. Andrew was at a family member's house and then Jim was taking care of him. It feels like it's been a really long time since I've done that since I'm usually taking care of Andrew during that time. Even if the TV is on, I rarely pay such close attention as I did the other night.

In the 2 hours I witnessed:
The B word many times
The A word several times
"She's a GDB"
An unmarried couple stripping and running into a hotel room
A nurse handing a college guy a bunch of condoms for the guy's first date
2 girls making out in public (not close up, but it was brought to attention by dialog)

There was more, but this is the stuff that I can remember quickly off the top of my head. Oh, and there were commercials that I could argue were directed to very young kids in there, too. Classy.

The craziest part was that the most offensive, adult-oriented material was in the first 30 minutes. It was rated for ages 14+. Yeah, like 13-year-olds go to bed at 7:00PM. And besides, that is what the industry considers OK for a 14-year-old? I would cringe if a 17-year-old saw that. This was 2 days after this article came out describing the findings of study showing a connection between teen pregnancy and TV with sexual content.

I talked to Jim after this 2-hour cringe marathon and we've decided on no more network comedy shows. And, since that isn't the only place that stuff occurs, we'll likely do the same for the dramas we like, too. In fact, we're going to unplug the antenna and tuner and put them away at least until Christmas. It will be like an early start on advent. I gave up TV for lent one year and it was actually really nice. I craved it at first, but I'm a reader so I just upped my library borrowing. I was so much more relaxed and it set the tone for me canceling my cable to the point where I now rarely watch TV. Jim was saying that it hardly counts as an advent sacrifice since we'll hardly notice the difference. We'll see.

Yes, I know, kids will see this stuff sometimes. They'll see it at their friends' houses, etc. Once our children are old enough to think critically, I'll probably watch a show with them and critique it for them, then with them. I'll do the same thing with a Cos.mo magazine, too, especially with my girls. I want them to be able to discern media and not just believe everything they see or hear. I know that whatever we watch without comment will be seen as acceptable to us adults, and, therefore, acceptable for them. How many parents watched those shows with their school-age kids in the room and just laughed or said nothing? And they wonder why we deal with STDs, teen pregnancy, etc. Parents who can control the TV have the potential to have more respect from their kids.

We'll still watch TV. We'll just rent the shows we like on DVD and watch them after the kids are in bed. It's a sacrifice in that we can't watch them until the season is over, but we prefer them on DVD because of the special features and ability to pause, etc. We rent them as part of our DVD-by-mail plan so it doesn't cost any more than we already pay per month. This may seem extreme, but we hardly ever watch TV anyway. There is only one show that we are consistent about watching. To be honest, and this may sound strange, but it's kinda stressful trying to catch a show anyway. I find myself rushing to get Andrew in bed on time and getting really frustrated when he cries in his crib while we are trying to listen to the show. If I discipline myself, and just never turn it on, then I can be a better mom and have less stress. I'm not the kind of person who can just watch when I happen to have time. I have to watch every show of the season or none at all.

Are there any genuinely entertaining network shows that don't have:
obnoxious, back-talking school-age kids
cursing
substance abuse (unless it's part of an edifying plot line about getting help)
sexual material of any kind between unmarried people
excessive violence/gore
weak parents with no authority

I know, trick question.

We don't have cable because A.) the expense was not enough of a value, and B.) we will not let the trash from some stations be piped directly into our home. If there is a show I want to watch, I can almost always watch it with limited commercials on the internet, usually on the cable channel's own website. I can pause whenever I want and rewind. It's no Tivo, but free.

Speaking of piping trash directly into your home, Jim and I are trying to figure out what kind of bl.u-r.ay player we'll get. We want one that can be updated via wifi, but they are also ne.tfl.ix ready devices. The last thing we need as parents is to have access to any movie, any time. Can you imagine what kids will watch if they're unsupervised? There is no accountability there. Is it really any movie, any time, for free as part of the paid service? I can handle pay-per-view, because there is accountability there. If we saw a charge that we didn't approve, the kid(s) are busted. Does anyone with that service know? I like how, with the DVDs, I can monitor them beforehand by checking several family-review sites. While having the streaming media sounds cool as an adult, as a parent it is intimidating.

I'm also considering buying a locking cabinet for the DVD's we own that we don't want our kids to see without our permission and our guidance. Does anyone else do that? Any suggestions? I was a sneaky kid and I can see any of our kids watching a movie they aren't supposed to if we're not around. I don't even want them tempted.

Oh, and for parents of older kids, I found some great time management devices! I'm so going to use this stuff as Andrew gets older, especially with the video game consoles. Jim loves video games, but they generally drive me crazy. What bothers me most is that there is no time limit. So I find myself interrupting him to ask when he'll be done. Of course, he'll say something like, "when I get to the next save point." To me, that's not helpful, since my brain works in time increments. Then, sometimes he'll forget and it'll be an hour later before he comes back to reality. If I can barely stand it when my husband plays, I can just imagine how it'll be when all my boys are playing. By using the time management devices, I don't have to be the bad cop. The coolest ones use tokens, so it's like an arcade game. It is a reward, and they can earn tokens, instead of the TV being an entitlement. The devices give warnings when the time is running short and then just cut off when the time limit is reached. The kids would learn fast to take the initiative to keep track of the time and make sure the save frequently and plan ahead. Here is a site where you can compare time managers and another where you can see a bigger selection.