As I've said before, Phil is a tech guy. Computer-y things are his job, and also his hobby. This means that we are usually the first people on the block to have the latest techno toy. Such was the case with Tivo. We got Tivo in 2001--on the day we moved in to our first house. Phil could not wait to try this out, and I have to say, right from the get-go I was with him on this one. Tivo is just cool, no matter how you slice it. For years, we had the Tivo/Direct TV combo, but in an effort to simplify our lifestyle and our budget we now have Tivo without cable or satellite. We just Tivo our regular old antenna TV. Yes, you can do that, and it's only $12.99/month (plus the purchase of the Tivo hardware).
So, Tivo for two swinging newlyweds was definitely cool. Tivo for the growing family, however, is absolutely fabulous. I cannot recommend it enough. My reasons for loving Tivo are twofold. First, I have complete control over what my children watch. Second, Phil and I control the timing of our favorite shows. For a young family, these are very important assets.
I currently Tivo only two shows for the kiddobeans, Veggietales (weekly) and Curious George (daily). I keep several episodes of Veggietales on hand, saved on the Tivo harddrive. I have the episodes of Curious George record over each other, so I always have one available. If they are sick or we have a string of bad weather, or some other extenuating circumstance, I will set the Tivo to record Sesame Street or Caillou. We don't have to channel surf, we don't watch commercials, and we aren't controlled by what happens to be on TV at the time we want to watch (usually while I'm making dinner, which can vary from 4:30 to 5:45 depending on what I'm cooking). In fact, I don't even know what time our favorite shows on on TV. I also don't have a huge library of 30-minute-long children's DVDs, and its easy to keep track of how much TV has been watched. I try to keep an hour as our absolute maximum (30 min. is preferable), so if we've watched both Veggietales and George, well, then they are unequivocally done for the day.
Of course, Phil and I watch shows that would not be appropriate for children, so we want to watch TV after the kids go to bed. I like some shows, notably Dancing with the Stars, that Phil finds completely uninteresting, so I can watch those during the day if they nap well. Since prime time is also bedtime, we'd be cramming diaper changes and bedtime stories into commercial breaks--or missing our favorite shows-- if we only had regular TV. Timing is everything.
Probably most of you are at least aware of Tivo, if you don't actually have it already, but I just thought I'd through out one Mom's perspective. For me, ditching the cable/satellite and keeping the Tivo was the most practical and cost-effective use of our TV. Who needs 600 channels when the network TV shows are at your fingertips whenever you want to watch them?
For those of you who are mechanically minded, Phil has generously offered to do a complete technical review of Tivo, so stay tuned for that! If you have technical questions about Tivo, throw those my way and our resident technical expert would be happy to address them.
