A love affair with PBS
We don't have cable. We don't have a satellite dish. We have bunny ears plugged into our TV. But at least we have a flat screen. (Shh. Don't look in the gold room where our 30-something-inch boob tube is hooked up to the Wii.) We haven't had cable since 1997. Gawd, just typing that makes me feel old. I shut it off when I moved in with T after his mom passed. I wanted to save money by not having the movie channels. The local cable company wanted to charge me to turn them off. I'm not sure if they thought they could get an extra $20 out of my 19-year-old self or what. My response? Shut it all off. There are times I miss having 100 billion stations to choose from. Like Discovery and The History Channel and National Geographic. But my life is busy. So if I had those channels I might get even less housework done. (Just ask T how impressive *that* would be.) But over the years PBS has become my friend. And then we had kids, and it became our kid-friendly station. I still miss Zaboomafoo as they don't show it here in Nevada. Is it still on in other parts of the country? The Kratt brothers are pretty awesome. My girls big puffy heart Nova and all things science-y and animal-y.
When the conversion from analog to HD TV made it's presence known, (when was that? 2009?) we got the converter boxes and all was right with the world. We even got PBS's Create station which tickled the 9yo to no end. She loves watching people make stuff. But sometime earlier this year the PBS stations disappeared. I'd rerun the "find channels" option on the TV and had a 50% success rate with getting them to show up. And if they did actually show up, it only lasted until we turned the TV off. Very frustrating.
Because of the lack of kid-friendly TV the girls have watched a lot of movies since the loss of PBS. They've been watching Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets lately. A LOT. The 4yo knows how to make the DVD player work. This morning when she turned on the TV to start a movie, (I had been watching PBS last night before going to bed while I was doing my torture stretching techniques on my legs) she was just about to press play on the DVD player, and PBS kids pops up and she freezes. Literally. She just stood there 6 inches away from the TV staring at it. Talk about a "magic box". I convinced her to come eat breakfast before heading back to the living room. I have friends who call the trance kids get into while watching TV "tuning into the mothership". This is a perfect description of Sweet Pea this morning. She refused to let me help her with her shoes, but it took her the whole length of Curious George to actually get it done.
I love PBS, but I think my kids love it more. I'm not holding my breath that it will last, but I'm going to enjoy it while it's here.
When the conversion from analog to HD TV made it's presence known, (when was that? 2009?) we got the converter boxes and all was right with the world. We even got PBS's Create station which tickled the 9yo to no end. She loves watching people make stuff. But sometime earlier this year the PBS stations disappeared. I'd rerun the "find channels" option on the TV and had a 50% success rate with getting them to show up. And if they did actually show up, it only lasted until we turned the TV off. Very frustrating.
Because of the lack of kid-friendly TV the girls have watched a lot of movies since the loss of PBS. They've been watching Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets lately. A LOT. The 4yo knows how to make the DVD player work. This morning when she turned on the TV to start a movie, (I had been watching PBS last night before going to bed while I was doing my torture stretching techniques on my legs) she was just about to press play on the DVD player, and PBS kids pops up and she freezes. Literally. She just stood there 6 inches away from the TV staring at it. Talk about a "magic box". I convinced her to come eat breakfast before heading back to the living room. I have friends who call the trance kids get into while watching TV "tuning into the mothership". This is a perfect description of Sweet Pea this morning. She refused to let me help her with her shoes, but it took her the whole length of Curious George to actually get it done.
I love PBS, but I think my kids love it more. I'm not holding my breath that it will last, but I'm going to enjoy it while it's here.
PBS is awesome! We don't have TV either. Mostly cuz we'd rather spend our money on things other than cable, but also because when we did have cable (because it came with our apartment), we spent way too much time watching stupid stuff instead of going out and doing things, or being productive at home, or reading.
ReplyDeleteBut this post reminds me that there are some wonderful shows. I wonder if you could get them elsewhere? Netflix maybe or something?
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Ok, I just checked it out. PBS does publish some content online. I just looked through Nova's website briefly, for example, and you can watch videos through Quicktime or Windows Media Player. Maybe that might work for you?
I grew up in a household without TV by my parent's choice. I would occasionally get to watch TV when I would go to spend the night with my grandparents, but even they wouldn't let me watch too much of it in deference to my parents. I spent a lot of time reading, writing, playing music, making crafts, etc. Now I have over 250 channels (many in HD) & an HD DVR with my DirecTV service. I know I spend too much time watching the "idiot box" as my Dad always called it. Perhaps it's time for me to unplug from the TV & DVR for a week to help remind myself that there's nothing on there so important that I need to leave other things undone because I'm watching "must see" TV.
ReplyDeletewe have basic cable, and I recently discovered that we have SoapNet. I loveeee the channel. They have 90210 marathons which make me very, very happy :)
ReplyDeleteI love that we don't have the expanded channels. We actually spend time together (and save money.) I'm happy to see that there others like me out in the world (and who prove that you can survive without any assistance from the cable company!)
Oh, and my husband is a huge PBS fan. I hope your kids never outgrow loving PBS :)
My son (3) and I just watched Zaboomafoo earlier today. It was great to hear him trying to say it too. LOL
ReplyDeleteWe too do not have cable. The first month or so I missed it but now it doesn't phase me. Nothing on TV? Play the wii, watch a movie, go for a walk, clean the house, do whatever.