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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Cowboy night

We don't have TV hooked up to the outside world. We have gone through different TV phases in our married life but always knowing that too much TV is not good for children (and us). For disclosure purposes we do own a TV/ DVD player hooked to a X-Box and a Wii and another TV hooked up to a VCR. We also recently purchased a "kids" laptop so that my husband could teach my son how to do computer programming and gives the kids very limited Internet access (with Net Nanny) and this also has a DVD player. The main time we let the kids watch movies is when we have company or Saturday morning. We "try" to keep it limited and still go in phases, usually winter brings more TV time and summer less. And of course there are those days when I just say "screw it" and let them watch WAY too much and then they complain of a headache...

Video Games. I have never liked them AT ALL but I'm married and my husband is a computer geek and his down time involves some game time. The boys are the ones who like video games the most and I do allow them 10 minutes on the X-Box or Wii only after their chores and school are done. Sometimes they are allowed to earn more. Weekends are more laxed depending on what we're doing. A big part of the reason I wanted a "farm" is to have plenty of things to do that has to occupy the kids time so that we would have to limit TV and game time simply out of necessity. They each have many chores each day and it takes them time to complete them all.

I, personally, used to be a TV junkie and had to just cut it out all together. We have discovered NetFlix instant watch, but I don't watch shows just by myself anymore. We sometimes watch stuff after the kids go to bed, like our allotment on the laptop and that's plenty for me these days. We have finally found a somewhat happy medium. Not at all perfect (to me NONE would be perfect) but better than before.

In the midst of all of our figuring out we stumbled onto something we all liked very much.

Monday night cowboy night.

It started when my boys were little (they are now 9 & 10) and my husband went and bought a bunch of DVD sets of old cowboy shows starting with "The Lone Ranger". He also got some Zorro and old Robin Hood and threw that into the mix.

The kids have always looked forward to Monday nights because that's their night with papa to watch an oldie but goodie. This is usually our only "TV" night of the week days. They are currently watching Buck Rogers which I always thought was a cowboy show, but it turns out it's an old space show before the Star Trek days. Dosen't it sound like he should be a cowboy? Most of these shows I have never seen and I'll sit in on a few, but it gives me a nice break to do what ever I want while the kids sit on papa's back and enjoy an old TV show with him.

If they are lucky he'll even make popcorn.

3 comments:

Joe Schmuck said...

Star Trek was in the 1966-1969. Buck Rogers was 1979-1981.

Over the years, Cowboy Night has consisted of:
Bonanza
Wagon Train
Robin Hood
Zorro
Have Gun, Will Travel
Maverick
Gunsmoke
Roy Rogers
Sergeant Preston of the Yukon
Kit Carson
The Lone Ranger
Range Rider
Gunsmoke
Cheyenne
Annie Oakley
Buck Rogers

Travel With Lulu said...

We rarely watch TV because we can't figure out how to use it :) Our kids actually gave us a whole presentation as to why they want a Wii. I think we are the last in the universe to hold out on video games :)

AKmamaOf7 said...

Keep it up! They can play at their friend's house, right?