This article is based on Maria Smith. It has been edited for length and clarity.
After my youngest was born, we were all in survival mode and it felt like the TV was always on to keep my older two kids entertained.
I knew I needed to do something about their screen time, but I was too tired to do much.
Then I had no choice.
My 8 year old discovered a horror movie
We have a smart TV, and when you open the menu, completely unfounded ads for movies and shows pop up in the toolbar.
My 8 year old managed to find a trailer for a horror movie about an exorcism that was really scary. It was so scary that it caused her to feel scared at night.
One night, she and I were lying in bed, and she was crying and thinking, “We can’t stand this anymore.”
The next day, I hid the remote and told my older two kids that it was broken until I could figure out what to do with the screen. The first few days without TV were not great. They kept asking to see something.
But surprisingly, they adjusted much faster than I thought, and within a week, they were asking for less of the show.
Let’s start watching the tape
I started looking for interesting technologies they could use. We bought a speaker and CDs and started listening to the radio. I found my old consoles and we played on them too.
Mariah Smith’s kids love watching VHS. Contributed by Maria Smith
The kids loved it all. It feels like new technology to them, even though it was twenty years ago.
I remember my parents kept all the VHS tapes we watched as kids, all the classics. After buying an old TV, I brought the tapes to my house and we started watching TV the old-fashioned way.
They are fascinated.
It’s been a year since we started using small TVs and VHS tapes, and I’m very pleased with the results.
I can leave them alone to watch something.
As a mother, juggling three young children and everything else in life, I can’t always sit down and watch TV with my kids.
Now, I can show them something and trust that they will be safe. All the movies they watch have been reviewed by me because I’ve seen them all before. There won’t be any age-inappropriate ads popping up.
I feel like I have more control over what they’re watching and I’m able to keep them safer that way.
The children argue less with each other and are not as agitated as before.
My older two kids have become more creative now that the TV is no longer on all the time. My daughter started learning embroidery and knitting.
I’ve noticed that for some reason the kids get off the small TV with the VHS player more easily than our big smart TV. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the smaller screen or the slower pace of the storyline. Either way, it’s easier to shut down without losing your temper.
They also don’t have the option to watch YouTubers like they can on streaming services. I don’t want my kids to watch YouTubers, but I find it nearly impossible to remove that option from Netflix or Disney+.
Maria Smith gave her children videotapes and her old game console. Contributed by Maria Smith
The use of VHS tapes created some kind of barrier to watching television, so we now watch a lot less television. It’s not as simple as pressing a button and having thousands of options available. You have to make sure the tape is rewound, watch the trailer, watch the movie, and then rewind it. As soon as the movie ended, the TV was turned off. It felt like a natural ending.
What surprised me the most was how my own body responded to less TV and less background noise. My nervous system is no longer as overwhelmed as it once was. I feel much calmer.
We have recently added DVDs to our collection as there is more variety to choose from. My kids loved Bluey so we bought all the episodes on DVD.
Even though we initially made a hasty decision to switch to VHS tapes, I’m so grateful that we did. It’s not that we’ve turned back time, but we’ve found a slower, calmer way of living that’s better for our family.