This essay as told is based on a conversation with Mariah Smith. It has been edited for length and clarity.
After my youngest child was born, we were all in survival mode and it felt like the TV was always on to entertain my two older children.
I knew I had to do something to reduce their screen time, but I was too exhausted to do much.
And then I had no choice.
My 8 year old son found a horror film
We have a smart TV and when you open the menu, completely unwarranted ads for movies and shows appear in the toolbar.
My 8 year old son managed to find a trailer for a horror movie, something really scary about an exorcism. It was horrible and scared him at night.
One night I was lying in bed with her as she cried and thought, “We’re done with TV.” »
I hid our remote the next day and told my two older kids it was broken until I figured out what to do with the screens. The first few days without TV weren’t great. They were constantly asking to watch something.
But surprisingly, they adapted much more quickly than I expected, and within a week, they rarely asked to watch a show.
We started watching VHS
I started looking for fun technology they could use instead. We bought a boombox and some CDs and started listening to the radio. I found my old Game Boys and we played with them too.
Mariah Smith’s kids love watching VHS. Courtesy of Mariah Smith
The kids loved it all. To them, it seemed like new technology, even though it was twenty years ago.
I remembered my parents had saved all the VHS tapes we watched as kids, all the classics. After purchasing an old television, I brought the tapes home and we began watching television the old-fashioned way.
They were fascinated.
It’s been a year since we started using the small TV and VHS tapes, and I’m very happy with the results.
I can let them watch stuff alone
As a mother trying to juggle three young children and everything else life throws at me, I can’t always sit down with my kids to watch TV.
Now I can let them watch something and trust that they will be safe. Everything they watch has been verified by me because I’ve already seen all the movies. No age-inappropriate ads will appear unexpectedly.
I feel like I have a lot more control over what they watch and can keep them safe.
Children argue less and are no longer as agitated as before.
Since the television is no longer always on, my two older children have become more creative. My daughter has taken up embroidery and knitting.
I’ve noticed that for some reason kids disengage from this small TV with a VHS player much more easily than our big smart TV. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the smaller screen or the slower plots. Either way, it’s easier to switch off without a full-on tantrum.
They also can’t choose to watch YouTubers like they can on streaming services. I don’t want my kids to watch YouTubers, but I’ve found it almost impossible to remove that option from Netflix or Disney+.
Mariah Smith gave her children VHS and her old Game Boy. Courtesy of Mariah Smith
The use of VHS tapes creates a sort of barrier to watching TV, which is why we watch a lot less of it now. It’s not as simple as pressing a button and having thousands of options. You have to make sure the tape has been rewound, watch the trailers, watch the movie, and then rewind it again afterwards. Once the movie is over, the TV turns off. It feels like a natural ending.
What surprised me most was how my own body responded to less TV and less background noise. My nervous system no longer feels as overwhelmed as before. I feel much calmer.
We have recently added DVDs to our collection as there is more variety available. My kids love Bluey, so we bought DVDs with all the episodes.
Even though it started with a quick decision to move to VHS tapes, I’m incredibly grateful that we did it. It’s not that we’ve gone back in time, but that we’ve found a slower, calmer way of life that suits our family much better.
Gn tech
