Sixteen Days Unplugged, Only 102 More to Go!

Months ago while complaining about a high communication bill, my husband told me to pull the plug. The crazy thing is he wasn’t serious and certainly didn’t think I’d do it, well I did! I pulled the plug on cable, telephone and Internet, will we make it four months. Could you? 

Our family of five has been doing without cable, Internet and a land line telephone, for a couple of weeks now. It’s an effort to save money, about $800. We’d also like to teach the kids that their world does not have to revolve around TV.

There is someone else I forgot to mention that has been affected by our crusade. My brother in-law moved into our unheated, no shower, pool house last year. He too was enjoying the cable and our desktop computer for his Mafia and Farmville fix on Facebook. Now he must suffer with us.

Well June 1 was the day our techno world ended. Our three kids think their Webkinz are dead and they have no life. I have taken away their reason to get out of bed in the morning away, at least that is the way they see it. My oldest Christopher, who has relied on precorded VHS tapes,  continue to come up with any reason to get the TV turned back on. The first day of June was also the day a terrible tornado hit Central Massachusetts. Well that was reason number 12 that he used. "We could have been killed," he said. "We didn’t know a tornado was coming, because we had no TV." "Sorry Christopher, it’s not going back on," I told him. 

In an effort to turn in his cable box, our pool boy aka my brother in-law, found our saving grace. He plugged the cable wire into the TV and found out he got 10 to 12 channels. He was so excited that he came right in to tell us the good news. Bob, my husband was the first one over to the TV. He got it all set up and sat down, he was so excited. The night before he was reduced to watching a DVD of Yogi Bear before bed.

When the kids realized they could watch cartoons Saturday morning, they were over the moon. It was like Christmas morning, they got up before 6 a.m. to watch their shows. I was thinking, "how sad it that," well I can’t expect my family to get over their technology addiction cold turkey. As it is I’ve got my Blackberry, it’s definitely not the same but it’s been helping me a little bit, I still get e-mail.

Having nothing for the kids to do has been hard, they are always right there, underfoot. I didn't realize that big black box became our babysitter. Our babysitter is now on vacation for four months, how will we survive with out her?

The kids are talking to us all the time now. Before they would come home and I’d ask "How was your day" and I’d always get a "good," or a grunt. Now it’s non-stop chatter and we are all trying to adjust to that. The constant chatter with three kids is enough to give you a headache, which I’ve been getting a lot of lately.

The kids have been lucky, the weather has been beautiful. So everyday they have been outside enjoying it. It won't be much longer till they are swimming their days away. 

Now the question is, how long can I live with this headache?