Dh keeps mentioning what if I can't adjust to no cable. Whenever the thought comes up, I snap at him. "cable is all you - believe me - I will have no problem dropping cable."

& then later I will wonder to myself how ironic it would be if I had issue with it. Like, when I Was sick for about 7 days straight and could do nothing but lay around and watch TV. I decided netflix would do the job well in the absence of cable. Phew.

BUT, dh seems to be adjusting much better to the commercials. Then again, he generally has about 4 hours extra every day that I don't.

Anyway, he was showing me Hulu last weekend, and all I could think was, "You HAVE to watch the commercials?!?" Ugh!

& so I have been clearing off old stuff off the DVR and haven't really been trying the new system. So, last night I finally got around to watching Parenthood, on Hulu Plus. The commercials drove me batty. I oscillated between thinking "blahblahblah" through them and repeating the mantra, "This saves $80/month." I figured that given time I would adjust.

BUT, it took one hour to watch a one hour show. I haven't spent one hour watching a one hour show, in over a decade. I can tell this is going to drive me INSANE!!!

& so I admit that it is a possibility that I may be the one with the most difficulty adjusting. I just value my TIME too much.

Anyway, my thoughts on cable are that it is pure luxury, and I couldn't imagine buying cable while having any consumer debt, etc. (I skipped cable in college when I Was absolutely dirt broke).

BUT, my dh loves his TV/movies, and over time I have come to appreciate cable as cheap entertainment. (Cheap in the grand scheme of things. There is always some great comedians, for one, but you don't have to leave the house or pay for the comedy club. There are also lots of movies, etc. So, is how I think about it in an affordable sense).

Of course, I'd say we primarily watch comedies and documentaries. Certainly that is what we watch on cable. I think laughter is priceless, AND very healthy, and the documentaries certainly open the kids' minds and opens them up even more to learning.

BUT, I don't identify with TV watching as mindless time suck. I primarily watch TV when I go to bed. I am the type who easily sleeps 9 hours a night, goes to bed early, and is wide awake at 5am. I can't read at night because I fall asleep too easily. There is absolutely nothing I Can do productive at night, and watching TV is my routine. (I would never watch TV first thing in the morning, which is my most productive time of the day. But at the end of the day, productivity does not come to mind)! Yeah, I read in the mornings, for one. Anyway, it's not wasting time, and it's not bothering my sleep. IF anything, it helps me to stay awake and connect with my family when otherwise I'd be asleep.

But that said, there are a handful commercial-laden, one-hour shows that we can watch in the course of 10 minutes. & most the shows I Watch I can get in about 50% - 75% of the full time slot - just zipping through the commercials. Which means, sometimes we can watch 3 hours of TV in the course of an hour. Certainly we are used to watching 2 shows in the course of an hour (we could watch 3 shows is watching the 30-minute variety).

It will be interesting to see how this goes. Who knew I could be the first to cave?

I had never thought of cable as an extraordinary time saver. Compared to the alternatives. I could certainly just turn off the TV, but not sure that will work best for our family. I think it is possible I will only be watching Hulu with the family. When we can talk during the commercials and stuff like that. & it looks likely that I will drop the Hulu shows that I watch alone.

I think I will probably adjust, but who knows...

P.S. My mom has a lifelong habit of muting commercials. I will have to start doing that. That will be my little act of rebellion. & that will probably help immensely. (Hulu is nice enough to tell you exactly how many seconds are left in the commercial). Time suck aside, it's been like nails on a chalkboard, to me.