We turned our cable off a month ago and my only regret is that we didn't do this sooner.
Day-to-day it's not something we even think about any more. The boys love their PBS cartoons and we have several others saved to our DVR that they can watch if they want.
My husband & I have made a "date night" on Thursdays to watch Top Chef via Amazon.com's On Demand feature. It's been a really fun thing for the two of us.
There has been a lot of big news going on in the country and we've discovered that we enjoy watching the BBC news on PBS at night for the big stories (not really a big shock since we both love NPR and listen to it almost exclusively). Also, it's been sort of interesting to see the Al Jazeera English news that PBS airs in the evenings. It's mostly unwatchably boring but I do love that they provide IPs for people in countries where the government has turned off the internet (so people can connect anyway) on their news crawl. The perspective is also sort of interesting.
Part of me wishes that the world would wake up and see that life without cable is just as rich and full. There's no need to spend so much money on television when it takes very little effort to get what you want when you want it.
Of course, I know that's not realistic and that our choices aren't for everyone. For our family though this is not only "working" but it's making our home a happier place in general. No more "mommy I want that" when the kids see commercials. Now they just don't see commercials. It's a serious relief.
If you guys are interested in trying this out for your own family - let me know and I can send you websites that talk about mythtv (if you're linux friendly) or some of the other platforms that work better for Mac or Windows.
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This is awesome. You won't see me cancelling cable, of course (since it is free with the business internet), but I like it. I think it goes along the same lines as our 1-tv-in-the-house standard. There is lots of sharing and lots of keeping it off, and that makes the family happier. And more together. It would be too easy for me to disappear into a different room to watch tv without the kids. We'd probably never see each other. But my kids mostly watch PBS cartoons and I watch mostly network tv. Interesting to think about cutting off the cable...
ReplyDeleteI think this is brilliant!! I can see how it can bring a family closer together, where "bonding" isn't watching tv together. I love PBS.
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