3 Reasons to Take a Break From TV and Why You’ll Thank Me Later

by Joy Summers

October 4, 2021
3 minute read

My kid is OBSESSED with the TV remote.

If he even sees it, it’s over. He will get to the remote as fast as he can and try to turn on the TV. If we take it away, he completely loses it in a full on tantrum.

Most of us do not show our love for TV quite like as intensely as my one year old, but we do start and finish each day with it. I tend to be on my phone and computer so much for work, I never stopped to think about the impact of TV in my life.

Unfortunately, my son’s behavior has continued to worsen so we decided a good old fashioned TV fast would be worth a try for all of us. For one week we kept the television OFF. It was for my kid, but it ended up impacting me too.

The first few days I really missed starting my day with “The Today Show.” It’s a habit of how I begin each day. However, by the third day I was glad to not wake up already aware and stressed about the news headlines. My son’s behavior improved each day as well. He played more on his own and seemed to be in an overall better mood. Less tantrums was for sure the win we needed!

Maybe you still aren’t convinced a TV fast would be good for you, but consider these 3 things:

You will find free time you didn’t know you had.

  • Life is so busy and there are things that don’t make the cut in your day. When you cut out tv it opens up 30 min here or even an hour there. It seriously felt like a magic trick that added good time back into my day.

You will fill that free time with things that matter more

  • My husband and I ended up talking more in the evening. We even broke out a board game one night when we were board. This was so good for our relationship! We also got more rest. When you aren’t staying up watching a show, you tend to notice how tired you are and go to bed earlier. That helped us wake up earlier and feel more rested. More rest is a game changer for your whole week!

You will focus on less stress

  • My son was noticeably calmer, but I slowly started to feel it too. Keeping the news off and screens out of our faces meant a more peaceful home. We played music more which lead to some singing and dancing where there is usually just staring. I love to be informed and start my day with the news, but now I know I can’t do that every day like before. No TV for a week caused us to be more present for the moments that actually matter. Our minds wandered less and we had some truly special moments together that otherwise would have been spent flipping through the streaming services deciding on what to watch.

My home will not remain completely TV free, but one whole week fast added perspective. It is allowing us to take control again of how TV plays a role in our lives and only add it back in certain places. The one week TV fast shows you what television is stealing from you and puts you back in control to choose how it will be in your life moving forward.

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