Please don’t lecture me on all the research out about how children shouldn’t watch TV until they’re 3 or 12 or 20. Whatever.
We have this kid who is NON-STOP action. Pulling on the child gate, breaking child locks, trying to climb on something, pulling mommy or momma into another room to point and scream at something he wants, putting on the freezer door, prying off the socket protectors (yeah, he really likes doing that – I need to find better ones), opening drawers that we didn’t think we needed locks on, etc. It never involves sitting on the floor and playing with toys. Toys are not remotely interesting to this kid. And trust me, he’s got plenty.
We’ve always wished he would stop for maybe, I don’t know, 5 or 10 minutes. Maybe so mommy and momma could take a shower (if I’m lucky, a shower together – to save water, of course) without a kid trying to pull the toilet lock off (and succeeding) or playing with toilet paper, or opening the bathroom closet and trying to get to the plunger.
It’s exhausting.
We always wished he could be entertained for a few minutes but unlike his buddy, K*den, he’s never had the slightest interest in TV.
Until now.
All of a sudden, he will watch TV for several minutes.
The magic pill?
Se.same Stre.et
He will sit and watch it in the morning, giving Lo the opportunity to shower! It’s an amazing thing.
And he recognizes characters. Well, he recognizes one character, El.mo (aka mo-mo).
This weekend, we went shopping for new sippy cups (replacing the ones chewed through or thrown too many times). As we looked, I turned to Lo and said “let’s try the El.mo ones. I know the brand is probably chintzy, but maybe he’ll choose that cup instead of continuously grabbing and screaming over us not giving him our glass.”
She agreed and we almost had a complete success story.
Shmoo still takes a bottle. One in the morning and one at night. We’ve been unable to get him to take milk in sippy cups. And we haven’t fully committed yet to removing the bottle.
Sunday morning, I brought him downstairs to the kitchen with me to grab his morning bottle (after the little angel let us sleep until 8:15 am). As I was in the fridge, he opened the washing machine and spotted the El.mo sippy cup. He shrieked with delight and I held up the El.mo cup and the bottle to see which one he would choose.
He chose the El.mo cup and I was so thrilled to report my success to Lo as I poured milk into it.
Well, the success was short lived. He used the cup for about 5 minutes before he started asking for his bottle. But now I feel like we could start this bottle-free campaign soon. I think we could do it.
KJ and the kids said,
September 29, 2008 at 4:40 pm
J said just last night. I wish they would give us 5 minutes. just FIVE minutes of quiet.
My kids don’t get to watch much TV, but as of late they tend to sit and watch while I pump and feed babies. They like Clifford and Curious George. I think it’s on PBS. Oh and Super Why which is for older kids but the boys seem to like it too.
Just a couple of suggestions.
Shannon said,
September 29, 2008 at 5:45 pm
He sounds so much like Erik in a lot of ways. We also wished Erik would sit and watch TV for a few minutes. Just a FEW minutes is all we wanted. But he had absolutely no interest in TV for the longest time. And like Schmoo, he also didn’t care about toys much. He wanted to be into everything that was off limits. But finally, a couple of months ago, he started watching TV. It’s amazing, I tell you. We can now bring him into our room in the mornings and snooze for a bit while he watches TV. We can have showers. When we just need a break, we can turn the TV on for a few minutes. We don’t plunk our kid in front of the TV for long periods of time or very often throughout the day. But 10 or 15 minutes here and there? Hell yeah. And he totally learns stuff from TV too.
Also, just in the last two weeks, Erik has started playing with his toys more. He keeps himself occupied with toys far longer than he ever has before. I guess maybe it’s an age thing.
Casey said,
September 29, 2008 at 11:07 pm
I love TV. Love it. I freely admit that I use it as a babysitter sometimes. Educational, kid shows, of course but still. I do it. And I’m ok with that. My son was a non-stop, all or nothing kid and it saved my sanity and cemented my parental philosophy of “Whatever it takes.”
Yay for Sesame Street!! Enjoy the shower.
Sonya said,
October 1, 2008 at 8:20 pm
He’ll be totally fine. TV isn’t going to hurt him… in moderation. Pick age appropriate shows that resonate with your values and he’ll really be fine.
Soon he’ll be running the remote control himself and then the big rules will be created!
But… I’m a TV junkie. I love watching my shows. I love watching shows with the kids… especially “family” shows that A&E can now really get into.