My Life without TV

Before we were married, my husband and I made a commitment that we would not be allowing our children to watch television. For those who cannot understand this, here is why:

• It fosters immorality and anti-Catholic ideas
• Impurity on television is rampant
• Adult themes can even be found on children's shows
• It robs children of creativity
• It steals away precious time that we could be doing something for God, our Faith and other people
• It creates a television-based culture in many aspects of life, just look at how products are used to market TV shows
• We want to have our own Catholic culture based on values that we determine, not networks
• Television is a passive activity and does not promote critical thinking
• It is a distraction from our daily duties and our spiritual duties
• Anything can pop up on the TV, thus limiting parental control

Now, before you draw other conclusions, let me say that I do not think the object the TV set is evil or bad in itself. It is what is put onto the television that makes it bad. I think renting movies, shows, documentaries is a good idea. Not all shows are bad, but many commercials are. I do think that people should seriously consider renting instead of subscribing to a cable service. In this way, TV does not rule your day and you are more in control of what you and your children view.

If television programming came into union with Catholic standards of morality and decency, I would subscribe to it once again, however, it would not rule our lives. We would not base how we relate to others on television shows and it would not be our only discussion piece among friends.

I definitely strongly oppose children having a TV set in their rooms. I think this is so detrimental to children, so many studies have been done on the effects of TV on the brain. I think you would have to be a very careless parent to allow a television in the bedroom.

One of the best rewards of having a no-TV home that I have seen in my own life is reflected in my children. Everywhere we go people compliment us on good behavior, the children are able to sit through Good Friday Liturgy, which is so wonderful. They are much better behaved and kinder than other children their age, that I have met, who watch a lot of TV. They would rather play horses than pretend they are Spiderman. To me, this is a gift to me because I know I am giving my children something that I never had, a great but innocent imagination, with which it is my hope and prayer that they will use their gifts to serve God and His Church well.