Cutting the Cord

With all that is happening in the world the hubby and I have really been taking a hard look at what influences are coming into our home. We really cant control the outside world but we can control what goes on in the home.

One of the first things I noticed was our local newspaper during the last round of elections. The paper published a lot of articles in favor of or endorsing topics we didn't agree with as a Catholic household. We also have readers (young readers) who would read articles and start asking questions. While I'm not one to shy away from discussions or explaining to my children why we believe and act, I didn't feel many of the topic presented in the paper weren't the way we wanted to introduce things to our children. So we cancelled the local paper. Before you think we live under a rock and totally not keeping up on current events, hubby and I keep up via news sites. As far as the young readers go,  they can read the Catholic paper that come once a month - that runs more in line with our beliefs.

The next was cable that came across my radar. We will table for a moment the bill that kept raising ever so slightly every month. Over Christmas break we were sitting on the sofa watching cartoons (on a channel that supposed to directed for children) it wasn't the show that we found upsetting but the commercials. We found ourselves pausing the tv so we could skip over the commercials and letting our children continue to watch their show. So after discussion (and more discussion) we decided cable probably wasn't the greatest influence in our home; and it was time to cut the cord. So good bye cable.

I should note this was a much easier decision for me than my hubby. I'm not a tv person - I have my two or three shows I love but it isn't the end of the world if I never see them again. However, my hubby really is a tv guy. He has a couple of shows he loves and is a huge movie lover. So we ended up more switching to Roku (streaming tv) but it removes commericals (yeah for kiddos watching) and I think we are more selective of what we are watching (instead of staying up to late watching reruns). Hubby also added Amazon Prime, which ended up being a nice addition and he enjoys the movies.

So is the household running smoothly with all negative cultural influences removed? Simply put no. Our evenings seem to run smoother since TV isn't the main focus and I'm not breaking up fights over who wants to watch what. The best part for me is I'm not missing the raising cable bill :)

This life is a blessing and what seems long in days is short in years!