What a difference no telly makes

Reverting back to a long forgotten policy I imposed in the early days of Mark’s deployment today has been a TV free day in the Beebe household and crickey what a difference it has made.

Normally the TV goes on for an hour or so around 4pm.  Alby plays with his toys, we read stories and I generally zone out with my reward of trashy US comedy sitcoms.  Inevitably I can’t focus on Alby and the TV at the same time so it isn’t quite the reward sofa time was in the pre-baby years.  What’s more, since Mark left Percy has been craving even more attention in the afternoons leaving me even more stretched. 

So today I made a commitment this morning not to turn on the TV all day.  And it’s been bliss.  Alby has been happy to play peacefully by himself (largely focused on sweeping the carpet, stirring peas in the frying pan and throwing Percy’s ball for him).  Percy has been happy to alternate between Alby and myself for attention and I managed to sort out dinner, do the washing up, hoover (including under furniture and along the carpet edges), put a load of washing on and still have time to read Alby the books we picked up from the library earlier on. 

Having been so productive it’s easy to wonder why the TV ever got turned on again after my initial no TV policy – well the answer is really very simple.  I was drained.  I didn’t want productivity I wanted to zone out with cheap laughs.  Looking ahead I will try to ensure that we get a few no TV days each week but I’m not going to be quite so strict as to say no TV at all – let’s see if for once in my life I can do something in moderation!