Section16cattleco’s Blog

I was driving around today thinking I should get Direct TV so I could watch the Broncos games all the time. I currently do not have cable and just have the old rabbit ears getting three channels. I have not had cable since I got divorced and moved to the farm. After thinking about for awhile I thought that leaving the old rabbit ears would be better for me and my children. Here is what I came up with. Kids dont have anything to look forward to anymore. Take for instance TV. When I was a kid we got ABC, CBS and a Fuzzy NBC. I had no Disney, Nickelodeon, or Cartoon Network!!! I actually didnt watch much TV but when I did it was with my whole family, in the evening, after we had all sat down and had a good home cooked super. We knew what was on every night on all three channels. Alot of the shows we didnt like so we would read or play or do something else while in the living room with eachother spending time together. But Friday nights were different because the Dukes of Hazzard was on so I was excited about that and looked forward to it every week. Then Sat morning came and WOW I got cartoons for like five hours!!! A kids dream right? Well what do kids have to look forward to now? They have choice viewing 24 hrs a day 7 days a week!!! Watching most of it locked in their rooms away from all other family members learning no social skills or creativity while they wait for sat morning cartoons. Its like the same reason NFL Football is so popular. Its not over exposed like the NBA or MLB. On that note I can remember when the only NBA games we got were on Sat or Sun afternoons. I would be so pumped to watch the games. Now I assume most people,like me in my cable watching days, just skip over them in search for the perfect program they never find. The other part to the no cable deal is that now between the hrs of 12PM and 7PM there is nothing on the old rabbit ears but news which I think kids should watch. So whats left to do while we sit and wait for the Dukes to come on? SUPPER!!! The lost american pasttime that 90% of american families have decided is un-important to a healthy family! What has happened to us? So I blame cable along with the thought that we think we need to run the wheels off our kids having them in every activity under the sun, for the collapse of the most important hour of the day a family spends together. See when there is nothing to watch on TV or no soccer game to run off to, what else is there to do but cook a good meal together as a family and sit at a real table with real plates and silverware and eat it? Absolutly nothing!!! Especially out here in the middle of nowhere South Dakota LOL!!! I promise that if you cancel your cable subscription, pull the kids out of half their activities (and make them go outside and build a fort) the relationship amongst your family will improve ten fold. Good Luck!!!

Erik