No TV? Indiana families find it's no problem

Published: 2004-04-28

ST. JOHN, Ind. (CNS) -- For some families at St. John the Evangelist Parish in St. John, there was no ABC or CBS, no NBC or UPN April 19-25. Not even any Fox. For the fourth year the parish school observed National TV Turnoff Week. That meant no television and, in some cases, no videos, DVDs or video games. People read. They played card games. They colored. They played sports. They went skating. In short, they survived and prospered. Robert and Theresa Birlson have four children but only one television. The family as a whole averages 30 minutes of watching television each week; the children -- Olivia, 10, Emily, 7, Andrew, 4, and Sophia, 2 -- watch five to six hours a week. For the turnoff week, Robert Birlson said, the family played games and cards. They read newspapers. The children did their homework. "We did it last year, so the kids knew it was coming," said their father. He sees the week as a great thing -- "the less TV the better; more reading the better."

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