About ten days ago we accidentally went TV-free. And, somewhat to my surprise, it's been a very positive thing for the family.

We didn't realise, when we de-subscribed from our cable service, that regular TV reception in this area is atrocious. So much so that having no cable means having no TV at all. We had thought that the reception here in the new house might be better than in the apartment, but it's just the same, and people here say there's no point in fiddling with aerials and so on, the reception will always be hideous.

The first couple of days, Em and Sophs were distraught : their little Full House habit (they used to watch that inane show every single evening at 9pm) was pretty entrenched. And Stephen really missed clicking through all the news channels.

Now, though, we've all settled into new routines, and they're much nicer ones. After dinner, instead of the kids scattering to watch TV, we hang out in the living room and talk. And when the kids are bored, they don't reach for the TV remote, they set up one of the board games. (That's one advantage to having an entire room that's furnitureless - the area that the realtor billed as the "formal living room" is essentially a giant board-game zone).

We will still be able to watch DVD's, though. The night before last, we signed up for Netflix. Our thought is that this way, we'll be able to watch movies and so on, but they'll be good ones - or at least, ones we've actively chosen - and we'll watch them together, and talk about them afterwards. They offer a free two week trial, so we'll see how it goes. And we'll reconsider if the kids find that being TV-less is a big social handicap.

I'm sure the transition wouldn't have been so successful if we hadn't just moved, though. A move is a natural time to institute changes in routines - everything's in flux anyway, so it seems natural to try out new things. And of course, living in the house, it's much easier for the kids to amuse themselves than it was in the apartment. They have the pool. They can ride their bikes and skate and scoot outside on the sidewalk without being supervised. And, after Sophie's birthday (which we're celebrating on Saturday) we're thinking they may have a trampoline too. Not 100% sure about that though.