My husband and I aren’t big TV- or movie-watchers. We do love our Friends DVDs – they’re a great antidote to a bad day – and we enjoyed watching The Muppet Show last fall and a little Friday Night Lights this winter. And I love me a good chick flick when I’m feeling low. But since we activated the Netflix gift subscription my sister sent for Christmas, we have watched a total of one streamed movie and a few episodes of FNL. So I canceled it last week.
The thing is, when I get home (usually before J does) after a day of screen time, I tend to putter around, cleaning and tidying, or I curl up on the couch with a book. Then, we love to eat dinner at the table together, instead of spaced out in front of a movie (though we’ll do that once in a while). And after dinner, J often gets out his guitar (or the brand-spanking-new djembe he got for his birthday), and spends a while making music, while I read, write, bake or sing along with him.
Of course, some nights we zone out in front of our computers, or we both get home late and we’re just frazzled. But by and large, I like our quiet evenings. And I’m trying to spend part of my evenings doing what Felicity mentioned in her post about small changes a while back: producing instead of consuming. Even if it’s just knitting a few rows, or scribbling some notes in a journal, or drafting a blog post or two, it feels good to make something. And, well, not much gets made if I’m watching TV (or surfing the Internet).
So, for now, at least, we are a Netflix-free family. And it feels good.
cakes, tea and dreams 
These sound like absolutely lovely evenings. Good for the two of you eating supper at the table together. We were committed about that when our children were all home, but we aren’t doing so well with it in our empty nest. Maybe it is time for a bit of change.
I’ve been so surprised by how a few small actions have changed our habits. We used to automatically spend a couple of hours in front of the tv every night. Now that is only for special shows (PBS Masterpiece for me, Modern Family and Leverage together) or sporting events (if the NFL lockout really happens I could probably FINISH a novel!).
Love this post! Very encouraging and convicting as I feel this way, too. I know we’ll have to be even more intentional about *creating* when we have a baby to take care of!
That does sound nice. I spend my days in near constant motion with very little screen time, so for me the evenings are a great time to sit back on the couch with a movie and some knitting. I do have screen-free Sundays, though; no internet or tv. Can’t always stick to that, but it’s nice when it happens.
This is a beautiful post. It’s so “Katie” that a post with Netflix in the title could be such a sweet expose on a beautiful life. 🙂 We make very little use of Netflix too, but I cling to it for the sometimes. I’m so glad you’re writing some. And ahhh, dinner at the table. We’re terribly lazy about that.
[…] post was inspired by Katie who recently wrote about quiet evenings at home with her husband. I think we need a quiet evening each week around here, too. So often […]
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