Pulling the Plug (on the TV): The Reading has Started

It seems we are quickly getting used to not having the televisions arround. Sure it's hard to listen to the coffee shop group talk about what Sheldon said on The Big Bang Theory the night before, but we have managed to fill up the time with other things.

Daughter Reading Little House

The kids are getting their homework done. We are cleaning the house and getting repairs done.

 Daughter Olivia, 10, has started reading Hunger Games and Little House in the Big Woods. I've told her I'll read Hunger Games book at the same time so we can talk about it together. I'm glad she didn't ask me to do the same with the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. We also have heard her practicing her piano about eight times more that she used to.

My wife and son have resisted reading a book as of yet. My wife, at attorney, has been following the unfolding Kwame Kilpatrick scandal in Detroit for years and last week was the end of the latest trial. She has been following the play by play in the Detroit Free Press nightly. She is already asking what she is going to do once the verdict comes in.

Wife reading up on Kilpatrick trial.

My son, Dashiell, has just recently started drawing again. We even heard him strumming his guitar tonight (he hasn't done that in years). It is my fondest wish - and if I was honest with myself one of the main goals of me wanting the TVs out - that my son would start reading many of the books I would live to talk to him about.
I continue to read books on local history in preparation for writing a book on our county's history and the second volume of the The Last Lion biography of Winston Churchill. I have a stack of books next to my bed I want to get to and another list on my Kindle. I'm excited about the chance to get to them.

Son drawing in his notebook.

We of course have been telling our family and friends about our expulsion of the televisions from our house and the reactions vary.
1) My brother and a couple friends are thinking about versions of our move that suits them. They tell us to keep them posted and are following this blog and our Facebook posts. Whatever their final decision I'm sure we are not the genesis of a national trend. Too much inoculation in our daily lives.  This group is about one in twenty.
2) The largest group supports our decision, understand the reasons and wish they could too if not for their spouse or their children's opposition. I tell these people if they keep talking about it they might come around. I know from my experience blaming it on what I thought will be my family opposition was really me not willing to take the plunge, yet. My wife points out that if she had proposed this and the rest of the family was adamantly against it it would just strengthen her resolve - it only television. If someone was dramatically opposed to getting rid of it it has too much power over your life. This group is majority.
2) Support our decision but think it's too drastic. The line here is that while our lives might have gotten so out of control it is necessary, they would never let theirs get so bad. They might be right, in fact many might be, but I can't help think it sounds like Roger Dangerfield in the pro shop talking about how ugly a hat is but seeing it on the judge says "It looks good on you though."
3) Think it is pure insanity. How can we live without television? What do you fill up the hours with? What would you talk about with your family if you didn't have television in common. Is that a form of modern child abuse. Are you really allowed to not have television in your home? What's next? Homeschooling? Going off the grid? Giving up medical care? This group is the smallest but you would be surprised at the number.
My son tells me his number one reaction he gets at junior high is sympathy tinged with fear.

Stack of books next to my bed I want to read.
There is an another virtual stack in my Kindle.