Tip 3: No TV

The best thing for our s3x life ever is limiting TV to the extreme. Ashton (our oldest) didn’t even know what TV was until he was about three years old. When he was six and Brice three, William and I found we could hypnotize the boys using movies.

We would set them up in front of the TV with instructions – unless someone is bleeding or the house is on fire, don’t disturb Mommy and Daddy’s nap. [Once something did catch fire during one of the mommy-daddy nap sessions, but I’ll save that for another post]

Of course, when Cassidy came around it became much more difficult to find movies that would keep all of their attention (all three kids are three years apart – there are few movies that a 3 yo girl will love that will also keep the attention of a 9 yo boy!) But we make it work. Pick two movies, kids (see how much Mommy and Daddy love you?)

We watch TV very carefully (though the kids are 6, 9 & 12 now). William is addicted to a sports team, but he only watches on his laptop in the office and claims to be working. The TV stayes behind the closed doors of our entertainment center during the day. We only crack it open after they are all asleep. Friday night we have 'family movie night' make popcorn and pick a movie everyone will like.

Another advantage to limited viewing is that because the TV is never on, it is never a struggle in our daily life with the kids asking to watch this or that and us saying ‘no’. The answer was always ‘no’ unless Mommy and Daddy turn on the magic TV make our escape.

FYI if you can find the old versions of some movies, they are much longer than the movies put out today – Chitty Little Bang Bang is almost two hours.

Know any good long movies?