I'm not anti-television at all--witness my long-term 90210 and Party of Five addictions. I am, however, anti-television taking over our life. Hence the screen time rule, which limits each kid to a single chunk of TV or computer each day (yes, chunk is ambiguous--the length varies according to parental attentiveness and needs, but it's rarely more than an hour), as well as the purposeful location of our one television in the bedroom, where it will cause neither temptation nor conflict.
However, when you're sick, all bets are off. Sick kids get to spend the day in the parental bed (usually the night too) and watch as much TV as they want. That's how it was when I was a kid, and if it worked for me, it works for my kids. For the last two days, though, it hasn't been working for E, because the sick kid gets to choose all the TV. For a healthy four year old with a strong belief in fairness and a not-fully-developed sense of empathy, this is a problem in principle. But it's also a problem in practice, because M loves Food Network and E thinks Food Network is the most boring thing ever.
Now that E woke up this morning with M's flu, I don't know how we're going to handle the television.
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2 comments:
Hope they both feel better. Maybe they can take turns for timeslots?
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