When she packed for her move earlier this year, she left the television behind.
As a mother to three children—ages 5, 2, and 11 months—she had grown frustrated with constant demands to turn it on. Her older kids requested it first thing in the morning, while the baby crawled toward the screen whenever it played. Tantrums followed every time she switched it off.
“They were like little Cookie Monsters on Sesame Street,” she said. “Unable to resist something I knew should only be an occasional treat.”
The blank wall that wasn’t so blank
On moving day, she told her children there wasn’t a good spot for the TV in the new house. She stood in front of the empty wall where a mounted screen would have fit. They accepted her explanation.
The first few weeks without it brought unexpected calm. Her 5-year-old, who had rarely shown interest in art, began coloring—filling books, creating chalk murals on the patio, and taping family portraits around the house. They read picture books until her voice tired, then switched to narrated fairy tales on her phone.
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“I liked the narrators’ voices better than cartoons,” she said.
The change didn’t last. The first exception came when she hired a babysitter. To ease bedtime, she allowed her older two to watch an episode of Blue’s Clues. They were delighted. “New rule: a little TV on babysitter nights is OK,” she decided.
Then illness struck. The children watched Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast for comfort. Later, she played Bluey while organizing her closet. Soon, the TV-free household had quietly reintroduced screens.
The inconvenience of screen time
After eight months, she acknowledged she hadn’t created a completely screen-free home. Instead, she discovered a practical compromise: making television less accessible.
Now, if her kids want to watch something, they must ask for her computer. Most of the time, they lose interest before settling in.
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In the old house, the TV dominated the living room. Here, they see buckets of crayons and stacks of books instead.
One morning, her oldest asked to watch Spiderman on the computer. She suggested playing or reading. “No, I want Spiderman,” her daughter insisted. She nearly agreed.
Shows and movies became “special occasion” activities. They still have movie nights, and sometimes she plays a show while folding laundry. Most days, though, she gets the screen-free routine she wanted—just not in the way she originally planned.
The goal wasn’t to ban screens completely. It was to make them less effortless.
That adjustment, she says, changed everything.
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