Dear Incredulous Cable Guy,
Was it really so surprising or odd when I told you I wished to disconnect my cable television that you had to gasp? I could practical hear your jaw unhinge when you nearly choked on your inhale. As odd as you thought I was, I can assure you I thought your shocked response was just as odd. Surely, I can’t be the only anomaly to your day in these uncertain times? Are we really the only ones you’ve encountered tightening their belts?
I really was serious when I said we weren’t going with another provider and that we were indeed going to be sans 70+ channels of often informative, occasionally hilarious and sometimes mind-numbing 24-hour-a-day entertainment. I appreciate that you view me as “brave” but did you really need to ask me 17 times if I was sure I wanted to do this? It’s not cliff-diving, for goodness sakes.
And although I’m sure you still won’t believe me, I’ll repeat myself again: Yes, my child knows of the decision. No, it’s neither a surprise or a punishment. Yes, he is okay with it. And no, I don’t find that odd, thank you very much.
I assure you, we’ll have plenty of things to do: we build and play and write and paint and garden and cook (or at least try). And do you remember those things your 8th grade teacher made you flip through and review…books? Yup, we still enjoy those, as well as comics and manga and even the occasional magazine. We also go places: like hiking, bike riding, or museums or to visit family or friends or goats. And sometimes we just may enjoy connecting with each other or the peaceful silence that is accompanied by introspective thought when undisturbed by ridiculous laugh tracks and screaming commercials (must they really scream at us and remind us to laugh?).
And if you guys can manage to cut the cable without cutting the Internet, I’ll be able to keep up with the news I actually want to hear without having to listen to the bipartisan bickering or learn which celebrity ran their car into a wall or who’s in rehab (or needs to be) this week.
I assure you this isn’t the first time we’ve been without television – we survived a two year stint several years ago and I feel confident that we can do it again. And if you’re really as intrigued as you seemed to become and simply must know why we would ever dream of doing this to ourselves, I’ll tell you: It’s not because I’m anti-television. And it’s not because I’m trying to punish my child or because we don’t enjoy it. It’s because we have big plans for our life and that $40 a month can be put to better use somewhere else – like paying for a composting toilet or 1/10000th of our solar panels.
But I thank you very much Incredulous Cable Guy, for your giving me something to chuckle about. At least your were nice, albeit astonished, and wished us luck. And I thank you even more for not shutting off both my television and my Internet. Seriously.
My regards,
~Tara
P.S. Brace yourself Cable Guy but I’m also starting my own personal habit of staying off the computer over the weekends. Yes, every weekend. Yes, just me. Yes, because I really want to. 
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I'm Tara Wagner, life coach and creator of the Digging Deep process, where I coach women out of survival mode to recreate their lives and families.
Loved this. I got the same reaction a few years ago when we ditched ours. We were doing it because we just wanted the TV out of our lives (we waste enough time on the Internet at is!) and so the salesperson just could not understand why we would ever want to get rid of the tv when it was actually saving us money to keep it! (It was in some kind of package plan so that having TV made our phone and internet cheaper.)
We did the same thing. Although, they DID cut our internet (and phone too) when they cut our cable. Apparently, if you cancel your cable subscription, that means you simply must be reverting completely to a homestead lifestyle, at least in their eyes.
FTR, we’ve been without cable for over 2 months now and we all like it quite well.
Welcome to the (cable-free) club.
We get similar responses when friends/family/casual acquaintances hear that we’re STILL cable-free after 5 years. And no, we don’t miss it.
Good for you for figuring out your priorities and taking steps toward really living them.
Reading books? Do kids still even do that? How do you plug them in?
I love this… it made me laugh and I wish I would follow your lead… I really do… but alas, I am weak. So very weak.
YOU GO GIRL! I’ve never looked back since I gave up TV last year and I’m saving $513 a year now!
So funny! Yes, just imagine, some people actually CHOOSE to live without cable lol.
ha! 1/10000th of your solar panels! Every cent counts
We don’t do cable and never notice. But your right the cable guys are often shocked when they realize the reason we don’t want cable added to our internet is because we don’t have a tv! the look on their face: priceless!
Great post
did you send it to the cable company? I’ve lived without before but we are keeping our basic cable right now. I thought it was weird though when I called to cancel the HBO pack and they tried to talk me into adding a showtime one…
Good for you! I hate TV. and if I could get away with it, would do away with those braindead boxes in a minute.
I really don’t hate TV. It was one of many resources for learning in our homes and we did get quite a bit out of it. I’ll miss the History and Discovery channels for sure. I’ll miss watching Hannah Montana with Zeb (don’t laugh!). But I won’t miss that bill!
janflora, no I didn’t have the guts to actually send it to the cable company. lol
Steph, ours are solar powered.
Jennifer, I hadn’t done the math on it but we’ll be saving $480 a year! Sweet! (And I can’t believe I was actually spending that much on something we didn’t watch that often.)
You know, we like ourselves some tv too and I find I can get my fix via online. We do netflix and can now watch a decent selection instantly right on our computer.
Hillary, that was exactly our thinking! Zeb can watch most cartoons online and we have Netflix to fill in the gaps! Justin even has the Xbox which will send Netflix movies to the TV.
Bwha ha ha ha. Yes. BTDT. I am still rather surprised though by this reaction. While more people than not watch tv, many are moving away from it and watching programs on their computers. So it shouldn’t be *that* shocking for them to be getting rid of cable.
Annie, yes I agree. I couldn’t even count the number of times he asked “really??” as if he was expecting me to suddenly say “Just Kidding!”.
you tube has a ton of programmes Zeb could watch. My daughter and I watch old Scooby Doo’s from the 70′s. For eductational purposes only, of course
Wow…the same thing happened to us when we disconnected our dish over a year ago. I witnessed Aaron’s phone call to the company and the guy seriously tried everything to talk us into keeping the service. We ended up paying hundreds of dollars to get out of the 1 year contract and to pay for the dish…that they actually came out and took back from us!
I know what you mean about the History and Discovery channels. That’s all we watched when we did have television, if anything. Now I realize that a lot of what those programs talked about was just repeated information, which was not necessarily factual.
The only “television” I watch now is The Office and 30 Rock on nbc.com. It’s my little treat.
Oh, and I had to add about the composting toilet…Clivis Multrum is all Aaron talks about these days. Every point he makes first starts with “Until people stop [number 1&2] in the water…” He, of course, doesn’t use such appropriate language.
I got a very similar reaction when we got our cable internet installed, but opted not to get the TV package. You’d think I’d sprouted a second head or something from the cable guy’s reaction.
I also cancelled my cable and got a similar reaction. They couldn’t believe that I already had the hdtv boxes and was ready to go. It took me at least 30 minutes to get it taken care of. I was put on hold three times and offered different deals to stay each time. I can say I don’t miss it so far.