Two and a half years ago we decided to cut TV out of our home life. There was a little trepidation and a great deal of uncertainty at the time. Further, right up to that point I would have been the first one to get in your face and tell you how little TV we watched and how much we controlled it with our DVR/Tivo. At any rate we decided to pull the plug to all local, cable and satellite broadcasting.

There have been several surprises as a result. I hadn’t realized how much worldly influence penetrates our homes through that TV. It’s so gradual and sneaky that only when it was completely cut off did we see it. I was pleasantly surprised Blake and I never missed it, we’d expected the break to be difficult. The kids struggled for the first couple of weeks. Today they are so good about balancing their free time with activities beyond the TV screen and I don’t hear anymore about all the things they just have to have from all the commercials. They still enjoy so much of what TV has to offer, but now it’s more controlled and less immediate. In short, we got so many more positives than we were expecting that I still reel from the knowledge that it’s all spun from a single decision.

Today I’m thinking on how much my new remotes have given me by way of control and enjoyment and how glad I am that I switched to them. Two primary ones come to mind. The first is Netflix. The second is my computer. We set up our Netflix with three users, Blake and I share one queue, Cidnie has her own and so does Taylor. The fun part about Netfix is that the kids feel a sense of control about what they want to watch. In a very real way, this has replaced their TV remote. The queues can be updated any time and there’s no limit to how many DVDs you can put there and there are parental controls for ratings/content. The movies come to you via mail and you simply return them the same way, there’s no late fees or time constraints; you get your new movie when you return your previous one. We can all enjoy these on our big screen and in the comfort of our living room. We’re simply controlling both the show content and eliminating all the commercials. Recently, I’ve been showing the kids how to add TV series into their queues. These are fun because there will be several episodes per disc and fun for me too because we get a lot of old TV shows. Last night we watched the pilot episode of Fantasy Island and they loved it. I laughed when I put together how much Hugh Jackman looks like a young Bill Bixby. No wonder I loved the Incredible Hulk as a girl! *swoon* Back to the point, another major positive for me is not being responsible for housing and storing all the discs. I truly hate this element of owning movies and DVDs. When I’m not putting back the hundreds of movies the kids have displaced looking for one, I’m cursing how many have been so scratched that they don’t play right if at all. It makes me cranky.

Here’s where my second new remote device comes into play. My iMac is amazing with graphics and all I need with it is a good internet connection. I have two options with my computer. First, I can watch TV programs online for free through sites like hulu.com. Second, I can use iTunes to organize my purchased content. The online TV has limited commercial interruption and while the new shows have great graphic quality the old ones are pretty rough. I should add that Netflix is now adding this feature in increments to their site so you can watch some content online. iTunes fixes the quality and commercial issue but adds the need to download and store the content. However, I’m confident it’s only a matter of time before someone will figure out how to merge all the benefits into one tool for consumers. One of the great benefits of this era is enjoying so much control over so many options. I’m no longer at the mercy of a big broadcasting company. I’m also no longer forced into ownership as the only option to enjoy programs I may want to see again but not enough to justify owning it.

I’ve found that the only thing we lost when we cut the TV out of our home was all the unwanted and “filler” tripe. However, what we’ve gained defies measure. I truly believe in today’s world more and more parents will have to make some tough and big decisions to help fortify their homes and moral influence on their children. I’m so glad we made this one when we did. I can’t get back the wasted time spent in the years before we cut the cord, but I can make the most of now and that’s worth a lot.

P.S. I just checked out Netflix and see they have a new $99 device that does exactly what I just described. I knew it was just a matter of time.