I’m a lazy parent, and also an introvert. As such, I’m inclined to let my kids watch tv all weekend just so I can have time to myself doing things that recharge me.
(By the way, what’s your tv policy? The Zuglets don’t get any tv time on school nights unless we watch something together as a family. After homework is done, of course.)
Also related to being lazy, I don’t like to clean my house. But when I do clean the house, I do it with great bitterness because all my kids do is watch tv and make a mess and they never lift a finger to do anything around here.
This is what we call a conundrum.
I’ve been quite convinced lately that in prioritizing myself as the Most Important Thing, I could possibly be turning my children into the sort of people who live in my basement and eat the Frosted Flakes I buy until they’re well into their 30’s.
At this thought, I decided to start weaning myself off the kids’ weekend tv time by first setting some ground rules about what needs to get done before they watch.
These are not unrealistic expectations, as you can see. And what I like about it, is that it removes any drama from the situation, which I tend to invite because I hate strict boundaries.
(When you have a child who tests the limits of every boundary to see what will happen, setting squishy boundaries invites LOADS of drama.)
Now I am no longer the gatekeeper to the kids’ tv time. They are their own gatekeeper.
(She said optimistically on Day One.)
I love this! I think I may need to set this up for all electronics useage. We have a Daddy edict in place for no computers/ps3 during the week, but weekends it is basically a free for all. Time to instill something on the weekends as well.