EASTPOINTE, Mich. – Most families have rules about TV time, but the Orrs of Eastpointe has taken it a step further than most. For their three children, there is no TV allowed during the school week.
It's a rule 10-year-old Amir and 9-year-old Ahmad know well, along with the reasoning behind it.
"If we watch TV all of the time, we won't focus on our school work, and we will never get it done," Amir said.
Their parents, Reyonna and Demetrius Orr, came up with the idea about five years ago after seeing an interview with President Barack Obama.
"It was a conversation about habits of successful people and watching television was not one of those," said Reyonna Orr.
They say at first, the boys didn't even notice.
"We didn't tell them. We just stopped making it available," Reyonna Orr said. "So when we came home, if they asked, it was like, 'Oh, or we could get a book or we could play a game.' We just offered other suggestions. At some point, they consciously heard us having the conversation with someone else like, 'Oh yeah, they don't watch TV during the week,' and Amir was like, 'We don't?'"
The boys are plenty busy without television.
"We play lots of sports like baseball, basketball and soccer and bowling," Amir said.
But the family admits, the rule has been more challenging to enforce with 5-year-old Ariana.
"It was right when she turned three that it cut off for her, too," Reyonna Orr said. "It was a lot more difficult for her. She didn't have sports in the evening and homework, and so it was more work on us because we had to fully entertain her."
The Orrs said turning off the TV has turned on their children's creativity.
"Books are their television, so it gives them room to expand their mind on knowledge," said Demetrius Orr.
It has also helped them excel academically.
"You need to make sure that you are competitive," Reyonna Orr said. "You need to be able to get a job. You need to be able to take care of yourself, and SpongeBob can't get you there. He just can't."
The boys said they don't feel like they're missing out on anything because they always have something to do.
There are exceptions for special events like the Olympics. Demetrius Orr will also sometimes DVR a basketball game for them to watch together on the weekends.
But the boys admit if there were no rules, they would watch a lot more TV.
"Every kid in the whole entire world would just be watching TV, play video games, all the time," Ahmad said.
"It would be crazy because we would watch TV all the time, and we would be lazy," Amir said.
Reyonna and Demetrius Orr said their friends sometimes think they should relax their rules. But they're confident they're on the right track.
"I'm very glad we initiated it, and it works wonders for them," Demetrius Orr said. "You gotta be able to step outside the norm. You gotta step outside the box, and there's more room outside the box than there is in it."
We asked Amir and Ahmad if they would continue this rule someday when they're parents. They both said yes.
"Because we don't want our kids to be lazy," Amir said.
That's music to the ears of their mom and dad.
"I hope at some point it's a natural thing for them, that it's no longer a rule, and just kind of a way of life," Reyonna Orr said. "That you don't walk into the house looking to turn on the TV."
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