14 April 2011

My love hate relationship with my TV

At the moment I'm having a love/hate relationship with my TV. One minute I love it, as it pre-occupies my daughter for a little while, and gives Mummy sometime to get some cleaning done, have a shower or just time to sit down and relax.

I love it, as I can record the shows I like to watch, ie. "Grey's Anatomy", "Desperate Housewives", and "Private Practice" or anything else that grabs my fancy....last night it was the Finale of My Kitchen Rules!!!

Then on the other hand I hate it.

I hate it when I see my daughter look at it all zombie like and start worrying that she watches too much TV.....especially when she starts remembering characters names or theme songs to some of the shows!

I hate it that she knows how to turn the TV on using the remote.

I hate it that it's so friggin addictive, and that when you are feeling like crap and don't have any motivation to do anything that you plonk yourself on the lounge and watch whatever show is on.

I really don't want "Popette" to be brought up in front of the TV. I think back to my childhold and can remember the amount of TV I watched, which was a lot, and think that I should of got out of the house more, played with friends more, got into a team sport or did something other than watch the darn box. Maybe if I did I would have enjoyed my childhood more? Hmmm.....

I also worry that she's getting too much entertainment from the TV....she loves Play School (got to admit so do I....I would love to work in their craft room!), Sesame Street, and anything with "The Wiggles", and of course In the Night Garden....but lately she's been starting to watch a lot of other shows as well. I've tried limiting the time in the morning, and turning the TV off until later in the afternoon when Play School comes
on. But lately with being unwell and not feeling very energetic or motivated, I've kinda of let the TV taken over.

A friend of mine (who has no children) once joked about the TV babysitting my daughter, and while it hurt a bit, yes I guess it does at times. Thinking back to when I was childless....its probably something I would of joked about to one of my friends who had kids at the time. Of course I didn't understand how hard it was to keep them entertained or think of things to amuse them for more than a minute.

What to do, what to do...I try and entertain "Popette" with creative things such as drawing, colouring in, painting, or stickers...but that only seems to last a while then she gets sick of it....or I get sick of it, especially painting, as she gets it all over her hands and everywhere else! She does loves it when we sit together and paint, draw pictures, stickers or play blocks.

When the weather is nice we'll go for a walk or for a trip to the park, but when its on the miserable side and cold, I prefer to stay in.

Sometimes we'll catch up with friends for a playdate, go to Mums group or go somewhere like Lollipops playland. On a Tuesday we go to music lessons, which she loves, but that's only for 1/2 hour...and at the moment is on break for school holidays. And there's always little trips to the shops or a cafe.

I'm thinking of joining a playgroup next term so she gets to know some other little friends.....and so it gets us out of the house. I find when we are at home she gets a bit clingy with me, apart from it driving me crazy, I'm concerned that she'll become a bit of an introvert (like her Mummy) and not want to interract with other kids.

For a 2 year old, she's pretty good at entertaining herself. Sometimes I'll find her sitting on the lounge or floor looking through her books or playing with her teddies and dollies in her pop-up tent. Or she'll be pushing one of her teddies around in her little stroller that we bought her for Christmas.

I feel so guilty when I don't sit down and play with her, or when I need to take a little break as I've been with her all day and can't take it anymore.....don't know how I'm going to cope with 2 of them!!

Do your kids watch TV? What sort of things do you do to entertain them?

4 comments:

  1. Don't be too hard on yourself. The shows she is watching are good shows. My daughter watches TV when I'm feeling lousy too. Otherwise I would probably resort to controlled crying! Something I enjoy doing is play dough or having arvo tea picnic in the yard. Is Poppete mature enough to "help" you bake?

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  2. Thanks Karlee ;-) I think she watches more than she should...the TV is on most days unless we are out then its hardly on. I guess the shows she does watch, she is learning things like letters, numbers, colours etc.

    I've tried play dough with her once and she tried eating it, but will try it again. She's not really mature enough yet to help out with baking. I bought some craft supplies from Lincraft today, so after her sleep going to do some craft with pom-poms and pipe cleaners with her.

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  3. i have the same problem i hate tv and i think she picks up so much from it but on the other hand its so easy to put it on to get stuff done

    i plan on starting a screenless sunday then maybe moving it to more days :)

    i got the idea from this blog http://ecomilf.blogspot.com/
    they have a tv free house

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  4. I really like the idea of a screenless Sunday, might have to give that a go....just maybe not this weekend, looks like Popette is coming down sick :(

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