We don't have a lot of things that it seems a lot of other families have. Our tv is nice, but not HD. We finally after 7 years of doing without have cable, and we have highspeed internet. We have a dvd player, one kid has an mp3 player, one has a cellphone, one has a nitendo ds. I guess when I list them out, they have some stuff. But my son is always telling me about his friend who has a bedroom full of stuff. I think 3 game systems. The kid plays video games while watching tv and talking to his friends online.
I don't let my kids watch tv during the week(well, I do let the 3 year old, but she doesn't have homework) and they are only allowed 45 min of computer time each day during the week. I guess I am a horrible mom. And this does not make life simple for them. Or me, when I have to listen to the complaining.
Last night I put a password lock on the computer becuase I found out my son was online at midnight the night before. He waited until we went to bed to chat with his friends.

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I have nothing to declare except my genius."
- Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) upon arriving at U.S. customs 1882

I would not call yourself a bad mom. I think the way you do. I personally believe that children brought up with so much, grow up to expect so much. Besides, we all know that when kids have all these items they don't enjoy the important things in life. ie family time, learning life lessons, and giving back to our community. My husband makes fun of me because I get irate when I see the cell phone commercials of the mom complaining her kids are testing so much. A) why do kids really need a cell phone. B) there is such thing and parental locks on the phone. My neice has struggled lately, because she has a friend that has a tv/dvd, computer and phone in here room. I am not sure what else. And this friend likes to throw it up in her face. We are talking about 10 year olds. Needless to say, this friend is very rude to her mother. She demands things. That is not acceptable in my household. I believe children should be given the best childhood as possible. They should be provided with many happy memories, be blessed with family and friends that love them, their needs met, raised to be polite and helpers. Preparing them for the real world is the best gift you can give them. Not opening the pocketbook.

I think my DS (4) and DH are onboard with a simple life, they just don't know it. We rarely eat out (not even fast food) because every week I make a menu and stick to it. It has significantly reduced our grocery bill. DS likes to be involved in helping make the menu. Don't get me wrong, he is your typical 4 year old with a case of the gimme's, but he also understands to a point that he's very lucky and we work hard to give him what he needs. It's hard because so many of our family and friends allow their kids (I'm talking preschool age) to have TVs and DVD players in their room, computer games, that latest and greatest toys. However, DS likes to play board games, read books and this morning when I asked what he wanted to do this afternoon, he said "bake cookies with you". Well we must be doing something right. I'm enjoying living a simpler life. It's less stressful.

I like that, "they just don't know it."

My husband and I have talked about this and, mind you our children are 4 years and 3 months, there is a big part of us that would like to keep them away from a lot of these things; computer games, game systems, movies, cell phones, and the list goes on and on. But these things are also part of being a kid now days. Truthfully I don't know many kids who don't have a game system or two. Even on this board there are a lot of parents that allow TV's or computers in their child's room. The simple life is good but I don't want to put my kids in the stone age as well!

I also attempt to keep our children's lives simple by down playing the activities. This is going to be a struggle with my husband. His appoarch to life is the more you're involved the better. If I left it up to him, right now he would have me driving 40 miles every day to send our daughter to a private school that we really like. And then he would send me 40 miles the other direction (into Canada) to put her in ice skating school. Not to mention dance here in our town and if he could just find horse riding lessons. As for the baby, he's already discussing football and lacross! So we're going to have some struggles there because I like my family time, at home, with each other.

Like I said our children are so little that it isn't a big issue, yet! But I know the time is coming and I'd like to manage a balance of some sort.

mine as well just don't know it yet lol i have been slowly getting rid of stuff and guess what nobody has even noticed. we don't eat out but once in a great blue. but it is working we do more outside we don't have the latest and greatest of anything and to be honest my kids don't seem to care.

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'The will of God will never take you where the
Grace of God will not protect you.'

HAVE A BOOTIFUL HALLOWEEN

Is my family onboard with a simple life? HA! No way! Dh and dd think I've lost my ever-lovin' mind!

Life without cable? Oh, perish the thought! Not having high-speed internet? You might as well put my dh in the grave. My dd not clinging to every last toy she owns even though it hasn't seen the light of day in ages? Yeah, that's not going to happen.

I don't know that we have the most simple life but we don't have a computer at home (log in from work), we only have cell phones for emergencies, our only video game is the original Playstation, our kids do not and will have have t.v.s in their rooms, we rarely eat out (even fast food) because it's too expensive and the food we cook at home is tons better, and we limit our kids to one extra curricular activity at a time (with four kids, sorta have to!). We cherish our family time and while we do what we can to have family time during the week, we designate Sundays as our day together. Our oldest is only 7 so over the years we may have a problem convincing the kids they don't have to see their friends every day, but for now we love having a day to ourselves.

And my DH is completly onboard with this and our kids are simply because they have no choice!

My dh is on board, and the kids are too little to know better. We have no game systems- heck, right now we have a TV hooked up to the dvd/vcr player but that's it. No cable- no stations at all- only snow when you turn it on. I hardly notice.

I don't have a TV in my bedroom, so my kids won't, either. They can each do one activity at a time. We love having our days open to do the fun things we love.

My parents, OTOH, are still in the "more is better" mode. ACK! Today my dad showed up at the house with with pink cowboy boots for dd and a huge dump truck for ds. I love his generous spirit, and the kids were thrilled, but we already have an almost identical truck, and dd does not need another pair of shoes- although I have to say the pink boots are way cute.

Anyway- we're not all there yet but still on the road.

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I don't believe in miracles; I depend on them

I don't know if my dh is on board or not...I am slowly moving us towards a more simple life...I have been clearing out for awhile now...more to go obviously...but little bits at a time so that I do not throw my dh,dd,or ds into a downward tizzy!! I do limit tv time and computer time...I totally encourage outside play whenever possible...or pretend play...we rarely buy surprises for our kids except for Christmas and bdays....this Christmas we are downsizing tremendously....dd asked when she could have a cell phone ...she is 7 and there are kids in her class who have cell phones...I just don't see the point until she is older and going out on her own....no tv's in their rooms either...our house has tvs all over the place...the man who owned it before us was a tv fanatic...and we have a built in tv in the kitchen, bathroom, playroom, and we have one in the living room (that was ours when we moved here) one in my husband's office and one in our bedroom.....of course we pretty much only use the living room tv and hubby's office tv...the hardest thing for me is just getting rid of our "stuff"...we have so much of it!!!!!