TV - dish, satellite, cable or none at all

[angie r]

Brichard and I are considering doing away with cable on our tv. Is anyone out there cableless? The dk's have lots of movies they could watch. I think as long as I could get the networks reasonably clear I'd be ok with it. I would miss dk's not having Nick jr. Although I think they would be better off and actually play with the 7000 toys they have.

What do ya think?

[Diane]

We have cable and to be honest... If we ever decoded to do without it... I would probably really miss the few programs on it that I do watch. Now DH would be TOTALLY lost without the cable... he watches TV all of the time... TOO MUCH!!! The kids seldom, if ever watch TV...

Diane... :wave:

[AnnW]

What??????? No cooking channel? No HGTV??????? No John Edward on the SciFi channel???? Good God woman...have you lost your mind??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


uh..does that answer your question??? LOL

[Jeff]

I have tried to get rid of cable and have gotten vetoed. All because of the cooking channel.

5yo - iron chef
4yo - naked chef
dw - everything except iron chef lol

the whole family likes emeril (both shows)

$500/yr seems like way too much, but what choice do I have LOL

[kacee]

We are living Cableless!! And I think my mind is still here!! LOLOL.


I think it depends on your family and their TV viewing. We have never experienced cable, so it is easier to do without. I think you would have withdrawals for a while.

I personally don't like TV so much. We get the local channels and PBS has a lot of good shows on. DH likes TV more than I.
He mentions cable - Dish once in a blue moon. We really aren't home that much to watch it. I don't think that we would get our money's worth.


Looks like a time to list pros and cons!! Let us know what you decide.

[RCT]

OK, heres the deal....LOL..when we moved to my country home here in Central New York, we soon found out that they didn't even get Cable way out here....LOL....so I had ACB, CBS, NBC, and PBS....sometime FOX never the WB.....so fianlly dh moves from Jersey to here....we get Dish....ok its expensive but we too watch DIY, HGTV, and all the cooking and decorating shows...plus Nick Jr. and Disney....

as for the kids playing more with thier toys...YES its true....as far as movies....I got so sick of the same tapes I was ready to throw the whole set out the window....I understand your wanting to get rid of the cable....I keep saying I am getting rid of TV for the kids....LOL..I myself am an addict....LOL....


Follow your hearts....let the force be with you....:lol:

[AnnW]

Originally posted by Jeff
I have tried to get rid of cable and have gotten vetoed. All because of the cooking channel.

5yo - iron chef
4yo - naked chef
dw - everything except iron chef lol

the whole family likes emeril (both shows)

$500/yr seems like way too much, but what choice do I have LOL


I can't stand the Iron Chef!!!!!!!!!!!! grrrrr
DS loves Emeril too. I really like Jamie Oliver's news show Puka Tuka.

[KarlaB]

We had minimal cable at our last house - the most basic option available. At that point I really didn't miss what we didn't have and found that we did more as a family when the tv wasn't a crutch. At this house cable is not an option, so we have satellite. At first I was overwhelmed with all of the channels to choose from, but now I enjoy having a few more to choose from when I unwind at night. Love having HGTV, SciFi for John Edward, and of course the Game Show network for Let's Make a Deal and Match Game! LOL! Dks love having more channels to choose from, but I don't let them just sit and watch it nonstop. Downfall to all of this is the price - was used to paying $13 a month and now we're just shy of $50! Yikes!!!

[MaryL]

For many, many years we were just a "plain old regular channel" family. When we were building our home, and sold our house quickly...we had to move into a small apartment for 6 months. 4 people...tons of stuff...small apartment...ugh!!! Our treat to ourselves was to get cable t.v. in the apartment. WOW....sadly, we're very attached to it! LOL When the house was finished, there was the momentary thought of not having cable installed....passed quickly though! We love HGTV, Nick, Discovery, etc. I guess I always rationalize it that we don't really watch MORE t.v., just DIFFERENT t.v. It's a personal choice, I guess.

[PamL]

We have cable...we had to get digital cable, because our regular cable didn't carry HGTV. We mostly watch Nick Jr., Disney and HGTV.

[angie r]

Well, hmmm, you all are not making this an easy decision!!! LOL Right now dd is watching Blues Clues on Nick jr. I think maybe we should actually clock the amount of time we watch tv and what we are watching. I used to watch HGTV all the time but haven't so much lately. With the baby coming I will really miss that 3am Nick at Night while I am breast feeding. The kids have something like 150 different movies that they can watch so I don't think we'd get too sick of that. My neighbor is going to cancel her cable so maybe I will wait and see how much she complains about not having it!! Thank you for your input.

[RCT]

Oh Angie let us know what you decide...I am so curious as to how it goes....I agree about logging the hours watched and what station....that makes a lot of sense...

I totally here you about the 3am breast feeding Cable watching...I was a Biography junkie....LOL...

[Lynda/WA]

I need my satellite (DirecTV). Since we have moved sooo many times, we have had plenty of times that we didn't have cable or satellite. We haven't increase the amount of time we watch but now we watch better shows. With regular TV it was sitcoms at night whereas now we watch Discovery, The Learning Channel, and other non-fiction shows. We have loads of movies but DD has actually prefered to watch a taped educational show about dinosaurs. Walking with dinosaurs, a TLC show is a favorite of her.

I think MaryL hit it right on the head for us. It hasn't changed quantity just the quality of the shows. If I paid for network TV I WOULD get rid of that.

[KarlaB]

Originally posted by angie r
With the baby coming I will really miss that 3am Nick at Night while I am breast feeding.

Hmm, that definitely puts a different twist on my answer. LOL! We had minimal cable when I was breastfeeding dks and I hated it when I was trying so hard to stay awake and there was nothing on the channels we got except Infomercials! :rolleyes: I'd try to hold off until after the little one arrives. :tinysmile

[Sasha Rowan]

We got rid of cables when ds1 was 3. we moved from small apartment to a house and had dd a month later. PBS has some really good kids shows on. What we did was fill up a few six hour tapes with his favorite shows. That way we could wean him from Nick Jr. He used to go over to Grandma's and watch Nick Jr. Now he watches Animal Planet (He's 5). We don't miss cable, not anywhere near as much as we would miss internet connection.

HTH

[netmechwife]

DVD's... Used to have a VCR until ds decided to put a penny into it... and then a cd... and then a matchbox car.

I don't miss tv at all. We tried cable for a while but I was bored with it and had better ideas of ways to spend my time. As did the rest of the family. We get enough tv when we visit other peoples houses... If I ever did get some kind of tv network type thing I would get a dish and get the Angel Network... Christian and Family programming. It's one option if you want to cut down on the crummy stuff on tv. At one point I begged dh to get the Angel Network. I still would like to have it, but I know it's not a need and I am busy enough and probably wouldn't spend as much time doing the things I love if I had television as an option. Nor would we spend as much time learning about each other personally.

If you really want some kind of tv for those late night nursings... I know you are a Christian, so maybe the Angel network would be enjoyable for you. I think it is fairly inexpensive compared to normal dish networks. And it is all ok for the family to watch. A lot of uplifting things for spiritual growth too. And if you like your children to learn at home they have a lot of stations geared toward homeschoolers (even families who don't homeschool can make good use of these stations.) Just a thought...

[angie r]

That is actually something I am working on right now!! I am taping Dora the Explorer and Bob the Builder. I should probably tape some Franklin episodes too. Last night I turned on the tv in our room that does not have cable and we can get the two networks ok without any antennae. So, with one it should be ok.

Do you miss any shows that you used to watch Sasha?

Netmechwife - I have found a way around the 3am feeding need to watch tv thing......I am going to pump and Brichard will feed the baby!!!

[netmechwife]

I LOVE IT, Angie! lol! Maybe the next time I get pregnant you can talk my dh into doing the same. ;)

[KarlaB]

Originally posted by angie r
Netmechwife - I have found a way around the 3am feeding need to watch tv thing......I am going to pump and Brichard will feed the baby!!!

:yippee: Way to go, angie!! :yippee: You're really taking your MOOT membership seriously, aren't you? :newwink: :lol:

For late night feedings I also used to tape shows for myself that I didn't have time to watch during the day or just wanted to have something to watch later, whether it was Oprah, a movie, Dateline, etc.