{"id":1341,"date":"2010-02-03T02:28:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-03T02:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/day-thirty-four-change-your-television-habits-in-order-to-spend-time-with-your-kids\/"},"modified":"2015-03-12T02:41:50","modified_gmt":"2015-03-12T02:41:50","slug":"day-thirty-four-change-your-television-habits-in-order-to-spend-time-with-your-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/day-thirty-four-change-your-television-habits-in-order-to-spend-time-with-your-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"day thirty-four: change your television habits in order to spend time with your kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cTV will never be a serious competitor for radio because people must sit and keep their eyes glued on a screen; the average American family hasn’t time for it. \u201c from New York Times<\/em>, 1939<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Ray and I speak or write about allowing more time to be with your kids (like yesterday’s post), we are always asked how we have so much time for our kids, especially in light of our business and ministry. And the answer lies in not where we get the time (we all get the same amount, remember), but where we allocate the time we have been given. <\/p>\n

Twenty-nine years ago this summer Ray and I were married in a little country church. The best marriage advice we received (and followed) has also become our best parenting advice: do not get a television. Somebody told us not to get a television set for the first year of marriage but instead spend time together, talking and getting to know one another, developing intimacy and romance. We took that advice\u2014and have been \u201cstationless\u201d for most of the twenty-nine years of our family, though we did get a vcr and eventually a dvd to watch movies. (We tried getting stations one year, but didn\u2019t like the way it dictated our evening schedule and stole time from us.)<\/p>\n

With the advent of computers, dvd\u2019s, vcr\u2019s, and other electronic devices, we have other things to contend with for our attention\u2014and our entire family loves movies\u2014however, we have found that by not being able to get television stations (via antennae, box, cable, etc.), we have gained the most-sought-after commodity: time. The latest statistic on television viewing in America is twenty-eight hours per week, per person. Even if we and our children watch two movies a week (which is a stretch many months), we still have twenty-four more hours every week than the \u201caverage\u201d American. <\/p>\n

We cannot tell people that they should get rid of television as it is all bad. Nowadays, more than ever before, there are tons of good, interesting, entertaining things to watch. Educational and informative programs abound. Good movies are available at the flip of the remote. However, one thing has stayed the same: television is the greatest time robber of all things that vie for our attention.<\/p>\n

Getting rid of television programming is not an option for most people, I realize. After all, it\u2019s an American institution! However, I propose to you that even getting control of the television would yield you more time than you would know what to do with! And would give you literally hours each week to spend with your kids. <\/p>\n

Consider the math for a moment. If a person is the \u201caverage\u201d American watching twenty-eight hours a week of television, over an eighty year life, that person will have watched 13.29 YEARS of television\u201428 hours a week x 4 weeks x 80 years=116,480 hours\u2026.divided by 24 hours in each day equals 4,854 hours, which equals 13.29 years of twenty-four hour days. Imagine the relationships we could build with our children; imagine the things we could learn; imagine the good we could do\u2014with even half of that time, say six and a half years\u2014given to us. Makes me want to control my time just a little better!<\/p>\n

Stay tuned tomorrow for \u201cTips on Controlling Television Rather Than Television Controlling You.\u201d Same bat time. Same bat channel. (Some things just stay with us forever, huh?)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTV will never be a serious competitor for radio because people must sit and keep their eyes glued on a screen; the average American family hasn’t time for it. \u201c from New York Times, 1939 When Ray and I speak or write about allowing more time to be with your kids (like yesterday’s post), we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[278,277,341,300,319,271,275],"yoast_head":"\nday thirty-four: change your television habits in order to spend time with your kids - Character Ink<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/day-thirty-four-change-your-television-habits-in-order-to-spend-time-with-your-kids\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"day thirty-four: change your television habits in order to spend time with your kids - Character Ink\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cTV will never be a serious competitor for radio because people must sit and keep their eyes glued on a screen; 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