in which we ditch the box

And by “box” I mean the satellite receiver box.

That’s right. In my gutsiest move yet, as single parent, I called last week and had “the box” scheduled for termination. On March 5th we will be a Directv free family. Goodbye Disney channel! Farewell Nick Jr.

We’ve made this decision for several reasons.

1. It aggravates me to no end when Caleb calls from 7000 miles away and most of Jackson’s conversation has to do with whatever show he saw on TV that day. I also recently overheard him humming his own theme music and in his best narrator voice announcing “Jackson Takes A Nap”. Talk about a wake up call. Any TV is too much when it’s all you want to talk about for the next 24 hours.

Which leads me to…

2. During the moments when I’m completely honest with myself, I’m able to admit that lately I’ve begun to use the TV as a babysitter. You see, I never fully appreciate my husband until he’s gone. And I didn’t realized how much of the responsibility he carried until it was all on me. So at the end of the day, when I would normally have another person here to help me keep my sanity, and when I’m tired of explaining to Jackson for the tenth time why we can’t turn on the TV, it’s just too easy for me to give in.

But I don’t want to be the person that compromises my beliefs because it makes my life a little easier and buys me 30 minutes of peace and quiet. And I don’t want my kids to learn that from me. So the easiest solution is to pull the plug on the temptation. It took me several weeks to get up my nerve, but I made the call. And I already feel like this is the start of something great. I can’t wait to see what we can accomplish without 150 channels weighing us down.

Ps. Just so you know, movie night still stands.