No cable TV at the Andersons

Last week David and I decided to eliminate cable TV. There is nothing but garbage, and I do mean GARBAGE, on TV these days. We were tired of the girls watching the Disney channel. Which aside from the educational programming for 3-5 year olds in the mornings on Disney Playhouse, is really garbage! Adriana would also watch Nickelodeon....again....gargbage; the cartoon network....junk; and PBS. I would have to worry about the kids flipping through the channels and coming across the crap that is on.....Jerry Springer...MTV, VH1.....you get my point. Even what network TV considers family programming we consider highly inappropriate for children. I'm not sure what family they are referring too when they say "family programming"...because it isn't for my family! Several people have said to us, "Why don't you just block out the channels you don't want them to watch?" Here is why....I don't feel I should have to pay $50 a month so they can send crap into my home over the TV just so that I can block it out. Doesn't make sense to me. If they would let me pay for just the channels we want...that is PBS, the History channel, HGTV, Animal Planet, and maybe Fox News then I would keep cable. However they don't let you do that. They make you pay for all the channels you don't want and then in turn expect you to block them out if you don't want to see them. That's like me saying to my customers that they can't buy just a cup of coffee and a cannoli...oh no...you must pay for a chai, a lattee, a hot chocolate, a smoothie, a cappuccino, an espresso, a cream puff, an eclair, muffin, scone, carrot cake, etc. Oh you don't want all of that? Well you still have to pay for it, but you can toss what you don't want in the trash on your way out. The only difference is I don't serve CRAP!

At first Adriana rolled on the floor in agony when we told her we were getting rid of cable. She cried for an hour saying "You're torturing me! I'm moving in with Grammy!" Her discontent only lasted a few hours. Then she realized that we still had all her DVDs that she could watch. It was just too easy for the girls to turn on the TV when they were bored instead of finding something to do. That is to read a book, do a puzzle, draw, color, play with their dolls etc. We have been without cable for a week now and the girls are just fine.

Of course when David called to cancel the cable TV, the cable company told him, "Okay, but now your internet cable will be $50 a month instead of $40 a month." Oh yeah that makes sense!