Sort of.

We moved to Europe. TV is a different beast here (especially the commercials!).

We watch local news broadcasts (the 13 h newscast on TF1, France, is a delight, and we often plan our weekend trips based on their "local flavour" segments), and Arte Tv, local "journal" type shows, etc. Apart from that we watch British tv over the internet, and buy boxsets of our favourite series.

this is very funny because when i got pregnant my husband and i invested in an all inclusive cable package with DVR under the impression that we would be doing a lot of nesting (read: lounging and TV watching) over the next 9 months. and while we have been doing a lot of "nesting", i'm thinking about going back to a basic package (public broadcast and network) after the baby is born.

We've scapped cable since our daughter arrived. Still have a TV with a $20 digital receiver that pulls in 7 channels including PBS Kids in NYC. Also hook up the laptop every once in a blue moon to watch Hulu programming or Youtube clips.
It's really quite liberating and so easy to do.
We don't feel like we're missing out on anything but gained a ton of time/productivity and save $$.

We went down to "basic" cable. We plug into the wall and get about 20 stations, plus the few extras in HD that our TV manages to pick up on its own. I miss the variety but we've joined the gym with the money we saved and everyone seems to be liking the activities we get there pretty well.

I would love to be a household where minimal TV is watched, but my husband is a sports fanatic and I doubt he's ever going to lose that. :(

My kids have never seen a TV show. I know I'm probably a little over the top, but we don't even own a TV. My kids have no idea that there is a thing to do called "sit on the couch and watch tv."

They do watch songs (like kermit singing "The Rainbow Connection," for example) on Youtube probably a couple times a week, maybe for about ten minutes.

My older daughter is turning four in May and I'd like to let her watch her first movie as a big event, and then maybe start having a movie night once or twice a month after that. I still haven't chosen a movie for her "initiation" :).

We haven't owned a TV in five years. We watch a few shows on hulu, and the kids reserve DVDs from the library for the weekends. Otherwise we read, craft, draw, and play games when we're not working. Ditching the TV was the best decision we've ever made.

We haven't had cable now for 3 years or so and we don't own a TV. We realized that we didn't watch enough TV to justify the monthly bill. Instead, I watch shows I like (Project Runway, Lost) on the network websites or on Hulu.com. You have to wait a week sometimes, but we don't mind. My 20-month old has a few Sesame Street and Dr. Seuss DVDs that she watches on our computer, and we watch some Sesame Street videos on their website.

Every now and then I get the urge to hunker down on the couch and veg in front of the TV, but when I occasionally do this at my mom's house, I find that I can't stand the commercials and that there really isn't anything on anyway--I just end up channel surfing. I prefer the selective programming we can get online. We spend most nights blogging or working on projects around the house.

Or we just get into bed early and read.

$19.99 for internet thru comcast.....the Networks (nbc,abc,cbs,fox,etc...) come for free with that. I have an HTPC with Windows 7 and use HD Homerun with dual tuners. Neflix has an App inside Windows 7 media center and I use Hulu Desktop for everything else. I'll never go back to paying for cable TV...

We have a TV (only in the living/family room) but no cable. It was an adjustment for my husband (college football fan), but he can watch many of the games live from his computer.

We own a TV but quite frankly don't watch it a lot. We use the DVR to record our favorite shows and skip thru the commercials. This saves us a ton of time in front of the TV. As far as the kids are concerned... they were watching TV every day last year, so our new year's resolution is no TV during the week and maybe, MAYBE, an hour or so during the weekend. We had a "National TV turnoff week" at school last fall where kids were not supposed to turn on any screens at all (including computers) and it worked quite well at my house. So I'm thinking the transition will be easy.

I was tv free for ten years before I got married. I didn't miss it a bit. Then I went through a phase where I watched a lot of tv with my husband. Now that we have two kids I watch maybe an hour or two a week. The toddler and babe don't watch any, nor will they until maybe 3.5 or 4.

I would love to convince my husband to drop our Direct TV for a couple months to see how it goes. I watch practically no television besides a few kid's shows with my 19 month old son. He likes Sesame Street, Jack's Big Music Show, and Olivia - all of which could be watched from a dvd instead. The few shows that my husband watches somewhat regularly could easily be watched online.

My husband grew up with TV and loves it and loves to hang and watch tv with his kids. I grew up without it... in a family of readers. My kids know if there dad is home there is a chance the Tv cupboard will open and they can watch with him. They also know that if he isn't home there is no chance of watching TV and they don't even think about it. They don't even know that the TV is showing movies when the cupboard is shut...

We own a tv, and a wii and a PS3. But we don't even have reception. Never have. We watch DVDs and I catch the Daily Show on their website.

The only thing I miss - live College Basketball games. ESPN streams some, but not all. I'd love for the networks to get on the ball and just put everything online.

We haven't owned a TV for 5 years and wouldn't consider going back. Frees up amazing amounts of time.

We don't have a TV but I can't feel all high and mighty since I'm answering this in the middle of the day by sitting and staring at what is virtually the same thing--a computer screen.

At least my kids are playing quietly in their play room so I can look up a recipe to get dinner started! (That's what I should be doing.)

we don't have cable and hardly ever watch tv. we mostly watch movies on the weekend evenings after our son is in bed.

We don't own a TV - in our house, minimizing surfing the internet is what needs managing instead!

Our toddler watches movies on my iphone when we're stuck somewhere choiceless - the doctor office, airports, restaurants, weddings, the line at the post office...priceless! We have Tchoupi & Doudou, they are great because they are only ten minutes long so there is no battle over stopping a show.

Having just come back from a shared vacation rental with five other two year olds, I will say I was startled at how the TV was on all the time playing whatever indifferent cartoons were on to ease the kids through crunchy moments like wakeup, waiting for lunch, etc. Handy but not very enriching, I can see what other parents are talking about now!

Now that we have a Roku box and can get Netflix streaming (and we already have an Apple TV), we are seriously considering getting rid of cable TV. The one thing we would miss is the local news, but we're going to see if we'd get decent enough reception with an antenna.

We got rid of our cable about four years ago, and we don't miss it one bit. In fact, not a day goes by that I am not grateful that we don't get a single channel in our house (we don't even have rabbit ears for the local stuff). My son watches Yo Gabba Gabba on Dvd- our rule is one episode a day. We do of course watch movies, but we rent them or buy them so we are very choosy about what we watch. It has changed our lives- there is so much more reading, listening to music, and playing going on. My husband, who was never a reader, now averages two books a month. I highly recommend going tv-free. And these days, if there is a show you HAVE to see, their are a million other ways to watch it- Netflix, Hulu, Itunes, etc.

To save a bit of money, we got rid of cable a couple months before we bought our first house. Now that we are in our new house, we don't even watch "regular" TV. We do Hulu, Netflix (discs & instant queue on our X-box), and our Apple TV. I do miss certain shows I used to watch on cable, but you know, everything eventually comes out on DVD! (and I can still get my occasional cable fix at my parents' house).

We have a TV, but have never had cable (the Comcast guy was going door-to-door recently, and couldn't believe this house hasn't had cable in over 8 years). We do watch movies and some TV shows on DVD, Hulu or Netflix, maybe once a week?

No TV at all for the kiddos though. It's in a cabinet with doors and is never on until after they are asleep. We're usually too tired to watch anything then anyway.

I'd love to get rid of the TV, but my husband won't go for it.

We have a TV but no cable or even basic stations. We are all movie buffs so we have netflix and such for entertainment, but really more for background noise since the kids rarely sit down and watch a whole show.

The only thing that I really miss about it is the news... I am clueless as to the happenings of the world unless someone Facebooks about it!

No tv in years here, my computer monitor is fairly large so between Netflix and Hulu we're good mostly. I also have a tv tuner to use with an antenna (mostly to watch news and such) but I've had bad luck with reception so far and don't use it. We even have a wii hooked up to a monitor. I think we'll be getting a tv soon but mostly use it for netflix and the wii. It's not like it's easy to watch tv live with a baby anyway - we watch plenty but it's so nice to be able to pause it if she wakes up or wait until after bedtime to start a show.

I freely admit a love affair with the TV. I live in a rural area without a lot of friends to choose from... some days, the TV is the only adult voice I hear other than my husbands in the evening. We don't have a Wii or Iphone or anything else crazy like that. Our one release is the TV and books. The TV isn't all bad and in my case, is cheaper than going nuts at home alone.

We watch tv here. We also watch stuff on the internet. We also read, work on the house, do crafts, talk and play games board games and Wii. If my kid wants to watch tv I let him. Why? I want him to be able to be able to make up his own mind and have his own choices- and consequences. Everything in moderation. And it's worked-and he's only 6.

when my Mr. was younger his parents only fed him healthy foods. No snacks. Natural food only. Good stuff. The minute he turned 18 he went on a junk food binge. Cookies, candies, cakes and processed foods. Foods he
had no experience with it and felt he had missed out growing up. Well, with no experience he went from a skinny kid to a 260lb man in no time flat, because he never was taught how to eat- just told what to eat.

We have had basic cable for about 4 years now and are seriously considering doing away with it. Our daughter is only 7 months old and the TV rarely goes on anymore. If we do decide to do away with the cable I think it will be a temporary thing until we feel like we are missing it. Thank goodness we can get our LOST fix online! =)

no tv means no advertising means no screaming matches for 'dora', 'elmo', 'mickey', 'sugar puffs', 'pop tarts' etc...

that's what i'm hoping anyway (m'boy is 15 months and has not watched tv). for you who have eliminated the tv, how do you find shopping with your growing children? have you avoided early brand-driven requests?

I grew up without a TV (insert the typical gasps of horror reaction that I get when I tell anyone this) and I have to say it's the thing I thank my parents for the most. They would let me go over to the neighbors and watch PBS sometimes and we had movie nights, but my lazy lounging activity was reading and I can't even say all the ways that reading a lot put me ahead in life. I never got around to getting a TV when I moved out of the house (although I had a semester in college when I watched my roommate's pretty often) and now I just watch a few shows online every week and an occasional binge when I discover a new show I really like.
From personal experience, the best thing you can do for your kids is get rid of your TV and take them to the library once a week. Do it now!

We just got a tv again after 4 years without. We keep it in the attic - where the toddler doesn't go. With Netflix, Hulu, etc, there's no need for cable (or commercials!). My daughter does watch some on the computer - maybe 20 minutes 2 times a week. We try to be intentional about it, but not too obsessive. (And I agree w/ previous commenter - it's my internet time that needs regulating!)

This is a great question:

"for you who have eliminated the tv, how do you find shopping with your growing children? have you avoided early brand-driven requests?"

I feel fully qualified to answer since my oldest is 3 1/2 and, as I mentioned earlier, has never seen a TV show.

The answer is a resounding "yes." I have avoided all brand-driven requests. Literally. My daughter doesn't recognize syndicated characters with the exception of a couple that she has books about (a Franklin book, for example), but most of them are older/outdated.

She was introduced to Dora by a children's librarian, thank you very much. We walked into the library, looked at books for about five minutes, and then had the librarian walk up to us with a huge stuffed doll of Dora and say to my daughter "Hi! This doll is named Dora! Do you want to play with her?" I was appalled.

Even with that brief introduction to Dora, she has never asked me to buy a Dora product. And she doesn't know any of the other brands, so she doesn't ask for them. I have to say that while there are certain benefits I'm unable to take advantage of since they don't watch TV (like quiet time when I'm making dinner--and I'm now a single mom, so I can see why that would be nice), the benefits I DO have from this decision far outweigh the drawbacks.

I've never had cable. I grew up in a family of readers and my Mom referred to the TV as the "idiot box". We watched some PBS shows as kids. My son is 5 and is allowed to watch a kids show on PBS on Saturday or Sunday only. Last month he saw a Bears game with his father - which had been on for about 10 minutes when he declared it over. A commercial had come on and he had no idea what it was - he thought it was a new show! :)

We have a television - my husband likes to watch baseball in the spring. Our children and I don't watch it. It's in our sunroom, which we don't use in the winter because of the cold. We like to watch DVDs on the computer, or streaming on Netflix, although the quality is not always great. My older son is not too interested in toys so brand-specific shopping is not an issue.

We watch TV in our household. But we also spend a great deal of time playing outside and reading books. I would like my daughter to be media savvy and develop some of her own critical thinking skills, so I don't mind exposing her to some television. Right now she only watches Treehouse, but when she's older and her tastes mature we will talk about commercials and the entertainment industry (including television news). I used to work in the media, so I have a pretty firm grasp on how and why entertainment and news are produced.

I meant to add, my husband grew up in a strict religion that did not allow him to watch any television. He can recall as a child using binoculars to watch a baseball game through a neighbour's livingroom window.

It wasn't until high school that he was really able to watch any television and occassionally we struggle to have conversations that reference any pop culture from the 80's and early 90's. So I am of the belief that moderation is key when it comes to TV.