We Don't Need No Stinkin' TV!!!!

Ah, the on-going TV saga. You guys that have been reading a while will remember that back before Easter one of my darling children destroyed our TV. We decided not to replace it, and I have been 100% happy with that decision - I never missed it, which I wouldn't have dreamed was possible before it went bye-bye! LOL!

Well, DH apparently isn't doing as well with it as I am. He hadn't said anything about it and had agreed that the children's behavior was SOOOOO much better without it [no kidding!!!!]. I thought we had agreed to just not replace it.

Then a few weeks back he came home all excited because a co-worker had offered to sell him her old TV [she recently won a brand new one apparently]. She said it was a 44inch plasma TV and was willing to sell it to him, as a friend and coworker, at $100. Which was, indeed, a very good deal for a plasma TV.

So, he drove to her home a couple of Saturdays back - a good long drive in and of itself - and got there to pick it up, only to find that she hadn't unpacked it from her "Pod" storage container yet. So, he had to spend the entire morning helping her unload this container [because, of course, the TV was in the very back]. She was having a yard sale at the same time and it took quite a long time because she kept having to go do other stuff - he was there for more than 3 hours.

So, finally they get to the back of the container, and he sees the TV and realizes it is NOT a plasma TV - it is an old "big screen" rear projection TV - at least 5 years old. Not high definition or anything else he was expecting. AND, the thing weighs several hundred pounds [it is one of those old monsters that has the big wood base and stands almost 6 feet high - it is a hulking monstrosity truly LOL!] He was very disappointed [and I was a little frustrated - $100 was a great deal for a plasma TV, but not so great for a 5+ year old rear projection TV at the end of its life....].

But, he decided to go ahead and buy it anyway [having invested several hours of back breaking labor at this point]. So he paid her, loaded the monster up, and brought it home.

To a less than pleased me - this thing took up half of the wall in our living room [NOT the "minimizing" of TV that I wanted] and I had to help move the thing into our house, pregnant and all! I was quite prickly by the end of it all. LOL!

The kids went nuts with excitement though - every kid's dream right - a TV bigger than all of them put together!!! And they proceeded to beg and whine and plead to watch TV the rest of the day and to play video games on the TV the rest of the day.

I thought the TV was less than impressive too, because though it is HUGE, the picture was blurry and grainy and quite terrible IMO. The sound was weird too.

Two hours after it came I was seeing some of the old bad behaviors again from the kids too - which I pointed out to DH and he agreed!

So, I decided to be "Nazi Mommy" and I made a rule that they could only watch the TV AT ALL on weekends. It would not come on during the week. That first Monday, they all tried to whine and get TV, but I was having none of it. It went fine from then on, until the next Saturday when then wanted to watch TV again all day and fight whenever I turned the TV off....*sigh*

I was very convinced that this was a bad thing.

Then, low and behold, Monday night while my husband was watching the TV [after the kids were in bed], the stupid thing died. It is completely toast - he's been working on it all week trying to get it fixed and scouring the net for info on repairing it, but to no avail.

So, we paid $100 and HOURS of his work [plus his back was "out" and excruciating for days afterwards too] for an old monster TV that worked for exactly 9 days.

Now, personally, I took this as a sign from God. LOL! We DON'T need no stinkin TV!

But, alas, my husband is mourning this stupid TV and feels very strongly now all of a sudden that he MUST have TV or he will die.

*Sigh*

So, I guess we are destined to have another TV. I am going to require that it be a much smaller, unassuming TV and that it stay OFF except under very tightly controlled circumstances.

But I am sad. I think our home was a much better place with no working Television, and my children definitely were better people without it.

There is not one single positive thing that comes from having a TV.