Boob tube woes

Darling daughter and I have been watching way too much television. Too much for my liking.

I blame it on a couple of factors. January blahs. I'm a bit too lazy at the moment to leave the house so we are frequently turning to television for entertainment. It has become a bad habit. An hour of CBC Kids has turned into two hours and even three hours some days. Yep, it is bad all around. Lately, I have found myself surfing my many television channels after lunch time to see what is on. And I dislike daytime television too. I blame it on winter.

Reason number two: darling daughter's new trick of turning on the television. To curb our television watching, I try very hard (well, maybe not hard enough or I wouldn't be facing this situation) to turn off the television. But darling daughter will have none of it. She'll turn it on. We now play a game where I'll turn off the television with the remote and she'll turn it back on manually. Sometimes I give in as it is a distraction from her climbing and walking on the furniture, which is also becoming a bad habit.

Reason number three: January blahs. Oh yeah, I already covered that.

I'm not too sure how to get out of television habit. If I had my way, we'd have basic cable. Growing up, I only had three channels to choose from: CTV, CBC and TVO. We we moved up the road, I was excited because we had four channels to choose from. I had a conversation with a friend this morning (yep, the television was on at the time) about how my television consumption has increased in the last month. I felt a little bit better to learn that I wasn't alone and she was facing a similar issue. It kind of relieved my guilt. I don't think I will be breaking my habit any time soon. The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games are starting in mid-February and we will likely be watching. And as a proud Canadian, it would be unpatriotic for me not to watch and cheer on my fellow Canadians. Well, that is the reason I am telling myself. Now, if I could just come up with a similar excuse for the situation I currently face. . . .

Pushing my buttons

As I have alluded before on my blog I don't like watching television during the day. For whatever inexplicable reason, I don't like watching daytime television (except for The View, but that may be changing soon because three of the co-hosts grate on my nerves . . .). So instead, I usually have the local talk radio station on. I may not agree with what the hosts say, but I feel like I have forged some kind of connection to the outside world.

But now darling daughter has learned a new trick: pressing the television power button. We aren't sophisticated (translated: too cheap to buy one) enough to own a flat screen television. I really want one, but our conventional boob tube still serves us well.

The clicking of the power button on off, on off, on off is usually what I hear when I'm busy in the kitchen. The house can be completely quiet and I suddenly hear voices. It is the television.

So now we play a little game. Darling daughter turns on the television and I turn it off with the remote. It continues for a few minutes before she gets bored and turns her attention to something else, usually climbing on the furniture. Oh the toddler years. They sure are fun, but they can be exhausting.