Notice anything in common in these pictures? Well, Eyan of course but more specifically, the background? The TV is on…it is always ON. Due to this we have slowly created a monster and a little vegetative boy who would rather watch 42,000,000,000 hours of TV and movies then even go outside to play with the neighborhood kids.
I take full responsibility for this. When I was pregnant with Emberlynn during the summer in the early weeks I had some serious morning sickness and utter exhaustion and would lay on the couch and put on about 3 hours of Mickey Mouse on sometimes followed by a movie before I could pull myself together to actually parent. Oh and then there was the iPad. In of itself when fully monitored, it is a fantastic learning tool, however it also has access to Watch Disney Junior and of course that is another way for Eyan to just veg out.
Eyan’s obsession with electronics has been escalating lately. At home he argues about what shows to watch and gets very frustrated when we do not record “his shows’, he stalls his bedtime routine and has even snuck down after bedtime to get his iPad, he has even taken to not eating dinner because he wants to watch TV or throws a huge tantrum until we just give in and let him watch TV and eat at the same time. He started to do this at Jen’s lately and at that point, we needed an intervention.
So it was time for an
- First of all, Jason and I sat down and explained to Eyan what was going to happen, why it was so important and explained that we ALL needed to do this.
- Second, we took away the iPads as well as any access to our iPhones and I even removed the apps he likes just in case he got a hold of them.
- Next we did NOT turn on any TV’s all weekend while the kids were up (this will carry on throughout the week).
- Finally I planned many different things to do with him and tried to focus on making things around our house fun and really rewarding him for being a big helper or playing fetch with the dogs or racing across the yard. Seriously, we ended up have a phenomenal weekend.
I didn’t realize what a huge problem this was or how LAZY our lives were becoming. Without the TV on, I was able to get my kids up and moving in less then 30 minutes, we spent more quality family time, there were less tantrums and my house is cleaner 😉 This is definitely going to become our new normal, minimal TV and electronics and more family focused time.
So how about you? What have you had to take from your preschooler that changed your entire parenting outlook?
LaurenW
Thursday 8th of May 2014
I actually took away my own smart phone for financial purposes and now interact and do more fun things with Emma. I didn't realize how often I was sitting on the couch facebooking while she played (which wasn't necessarily bad for independent play) but I was doing it a lot and so now I actually play and we bond with is great!
Kelli Holt
Thursday 8th of May 2014
We need to have a weekend like that. Brayden is the same way with tv and it's definitely my fault. I put Disney on so he stays in one place so I can clean. Now, he thinks the tv is his and always wants his shows on.
Kelli Holt
Thursday 8th of May 2014
We need to have a weekend like that. Brayden is the same way with tv and it's definitely my fault. I put Disney on so he stays in one place so I can clean. Now, he thinks the tv is his and always wants his shows on.