the no impact man and the tv

I am fortunate enough to write book reviews, and I was even more fortunate this month to review the book written by Colin Beavan, the guy who writes the blog No Impact Man (it's on my blogroll).

I won't get into the review, because it's not going to be published for another 6 weeks, but I will say that at one point, they give away their tv.

What happens is two things- all of a sudden, they have lots more free time. Time to read, time to play with their daughter uninterrupted, time to have some (ahem) marital relations. (Not that I hope or plan to do that again- like, ever- but you may want to. Someone's got to, I guess.)

In addition, they stop wanting to buy so many things, because they aren't watching commercials.

Today was my last day of work before a week's vacation, which means I will be home with the kids for the next 9 days. It occurred to me that this might be a fun time to try out this whole "no-tv" thing. So when we got home tonight, I just didn't turn it on. I suggested they play on our screened in porch, or their rooms, and they chose and ran off. Then after dinner they chose to play a computer game (does that count as tv?) and never once seemed to notice that the tv was off the whole time.

On a totally unrelated note, my cat Piper brought us her first dead mouse tonight. We all sort of stared at it for 5 minutes, and then I dustpanned it into a plastic bag and we threw it in the garbage can outside. Yes, all three of us. It was quite the family bonding moment. The kids hugged Piper when we came in and congratulated her on her hard work. I secretly skeeved.

Sooooo.... we'll see how the morning goes. That's really our big "tv" time anyway. But I have a hot date with a book and a bowl of ice cream tonight instead.