It has been over five months since we gave up Amazon Prime and Netflix.

The rapidly escalating content on Netflix was leaving the adults in our family feeling gross after watching our shows, and we squirmed at the content the kids kept finding.

There were some great shows, but our tweens kept finding stuff that was rated for their age, but was full of bigger kid content that we weren’t ready to expose them to, at least not on the screen. I’d much rather have my kids read about something than watch it and have everything spelled out for them.

Amazon Prime? I was sick of paying to shop at a specific store, especially one that was invading my privacy and was my first choice when I was shopping or just looking for something. With the ease of ordering, sometimes, I clicked purchase before I even realized what had happened.

The content on Prime’s streaming service was often out-dated shows with equally outdated ideals (like male chauvinism and obnoxious ideas about race and racism), and the newer shows had some of the same content problems as Netflix.

In addition, Amazon’s interface didn’t do us any favors in terms of parental controls. Horror flicks were being served up right next to our kids’ favorite shows, and there was no way to get rid of them.

One customer service rep suggested that as Prime got better at knowing what we liked, it would stop serving Horror, but Prime is a slow learner, friends. While it knows everything about us, it still kept suggesting gross, violent shows.

The kids complained mightily about the change at first. Then they rediscovered PBS Kids. Since I watch the PBS historical dramas, we have a subscription to PBS Passport, which gives us access to some additional content. The kids started watching nature documentaries, as well as the many educational kids’ shows available. And they also discovered the baking shows.

They started telling me about animals they’d learned about. And attempting to make meringue.

Since we’ve made the switch, we’ve all been watching more educational content. Instead of hearing mind-numbing blow-by-blow summaries of shows the kids watched during screen time when we sit down for dinner, now, they share facts about nature, the environment, and who got eliminated on the baking show.

We’ve all had to get used to a slower pace – shows on PBS trickle out at a leisurely pace, so binge at your peril. Yet this means getting curious about finding other content that interests us – or not watching at all.

I don’t miss our streaming services. I shop on Amazon less, although I still look there for items I know I won’t be able to find locally. Entire days go by with no one asking me for screen time.

Getting rid of two of the giants has changed our family life for the better. The kids still sometimes gripe about watching re-runs, but they’re watching less TV, and the lion’s share of the programming they consume now is educational. Knowing that feels really good.