Afraid of Commercials

It has happened… our five-year-Army-subsidized stint in Germany is drawing to a close. We have had two children here, traveled to countries of which I never dreamed and generally expanded our minds and opinions. The packers have taped the last box shut, we are vacuuming Cheerios out of our van to put it on a barge and I am more than a little pre-nostalgic. (is there a single word for this feeling? If you know it, comment please, I need that word all the time!)

One thing we will lose when we go to Kansas this year is our Armed Forces Network TV viewing. It is basically a mixed tape of TV shows and movies that are broadcast to us on 8 different channels at a small delay, but without commercials! So now, I am terrified of commercials. Not adult commercials, but ones which target my children. How much of an issue is this, are they going to be begging me for Littlest Pet Shops over cereal, are their birthday lists going to get much more intense and demading? Are there still Tivos and slingboxes and fancy technology that you use to eliminate commercials from your viewing experience? I need some strategies. Thanks for your prayers for the move.