Biggest enemy of a happy family, is the television.

As I was doing my reading this week about happiness in the family, I came across this quote by Elder Quinton L Cook.  It says, “Another woman, however felt the “biggest enemy of a happy family life was not paid work--it was television.  ‘She said that families are TV rich and family time poor.’” (Cook, 2011)

This hit me at this particular time because our family is starving for quality time together, but the children spend their evening in front of the TV.  They are not watching anything inappropriate, but the amount of time the TV takes away from the quality time we could be spending together. 

I had a family meeting, and we discussed a few ways to increase quality time in the home.  It was wonderful how many great ideas they came up with, and only one, a movie night with treats, involved the TV.  The kids came up with ideas such as camping, fishing, playing games, and making a giant tent. 

I have turned the TV off for the evenings now, and already the kids are spending the time talking and interacting with each other.  Instead of saying the kids, “less TV time”, I said we are starving for quality time, and they all agreed.   The TV wasn’t even mentioned in our conversation, but happily for me, seems to have stayed off all evening.  

Its amazing how one little quote can make me think, and bring about great family discussions, and changes in the family that everyone appreciates and really needs.