life without TV, day one

Ok, so I got up at 5:15 this morning to go for a run, and yanked the plug on the TV first thing, so that any kids wandering downstairs before I got back wouldn't be able to just reflexively turn it on. Unfortunately, that's how many of our days start: "turn it off -- you know there's no TV before school..."

Then, since it was cold and rainy, I decided to go to the Y and hit the treadmill. I hadn't thought about how to avoid the giant bank of TV's the treadmills are oriented to. I picked the back row, took off my glasses, cranked up the tunes and focussed on the middle distance. Oops, picked a treadmill on the left, vaguely in front of the TV that's constantly tuned to ESPN. Must avoid baseball news....

Later, I went to work. We have a TV in our waiting room that is constantly on, tuned to terrible daytime dregs of humanity shows. No problem avoiding that.

Came home to dinner, and afterwards sat on the floor playing with S. (when he wasn't agitating to play computer), read a few books, still wound up getting the kids to bed a little late (thought I'd feel like we were gaining at least a little free time -- I should have picked up a half hour when I normally would have been watching "Good Eats").

No Sox game today, so no inner conflict there. Unfortunately, they're playing the Indians this week, and we'd actually be able to watch the game on cable here...

So, day 1, quieter house, otherwise not much difference. Easy for me to say, since I'm out of the house much of the time anyway. The real adjustment is in being at home with the kids and trying to get things done while still keeping them entertained.