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Taming the Television Monster
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Taming the TV
"Hey! I was watching that!" "This is SO boring!" "If I have to look at Darth Vader one more time, I'm going to turn to the dark side!" Maybe it was the Oregon rain, or maybe it was my newly-retired husband watching the History Channel for months on end with no reprieve from military deployments. Whatever the reason, we needed a solution. Read more.
TV Turn-Off
Things had clearly gotten out of control. My 3-year-old daughter, Tiny Girl, was waking up each morning, carrying her blanket and stuffed lamb to the couch, plopping herself down, staring at me, and demanding, "TV! TV!" What had started as an innocent way to occupy her as everyone else prepared for work and school had become a serious habit.
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Loony Over Toons
"Mama, that's Jerry's cousin Larry. He's a really good magician," Grace, 7, tells me with complete certainty as we're watching Tom and Jerry. Since neither Tom nor Jerry ever speak a word, I realize she has deduced her facts from observing only moments of action and music. Read more.
A Little Common Sense
Recently our family received a bit of unprecedented news -- our Aunt Aimee has a speaking part in Spider-Man 3. Since our family members don't regularly appear in major motion pictures (okay, never), this was very exciting news for our kids, extended family, friends, neighbors and any person who would listen. Thankfully, it takes a long time for a Spider-Man movie to finish shooting, as I needed time to deliver the punch line: there was no way we could allow Julia, 9, and Henry, 7, to see a movie rated PG-13.
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Member Comments On…
Taming the Television Monster
I'm a stay-at-home mom of a 4 year old. After realizing that my son was spending way too much time in front of the tube, I finally had to bite the bullet and put my foot down by starting a new rule! The TV goes off at 10:00 a.m. no matter what! Anymore TV before Dad gets home may be possible to earn with good behavior, but it usually doesn't happen unless it's one cartoon right after nap. To help smooth the transition, I made sure to have other activities planned to entertain him instead of the TV for the first 2 days. After that he pretty much was used to finding other things to do on his own! Honestly it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be and I feel much better about how he spends his time at home during the day!
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We too fell into the electronic babysitter trap over the holidays when the words, "Hey mom can I watch a show?", became a godsend as I rushed around like a crazy woman trying to buy, wrap, clean, bake and decorate. With life less hectic now, I realized it was time to get back into the swing of things including turning the TV off. Jack (3 1/2 years) now has two screen "coupons" per day, each good for 30 minutes of TV or computer time. After they're gone, they're gone. The first couple days were rough when he chose to use them between 7-8 am but now he is "spending" a little wiser. If he wants to watch a movie versus a 30 minute show, it will cost him both coupons. Since most movies are longer than 60 minutes I let it slide until he can really tell time. Now if only daddy will start using the coupons...
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