A Dream From God?
I had a dream the other night that I decided is from God. It flashed my children's lives in front of my eyes - complete with their hours and hours of television watching. Did I tell you the TV is a big babysitter in our house? Then I heard the message: "No more TV." God would say that, wouldn't he?
So I woke up and decided to put a nix on the TV watching for a week to see what happens.
OK, so I know that a lot of this is my guilt talking, but I don't think it's all guilt. I think it's me really telling myself that life can be better with less TV. Because my kids are behaving like cave men. They fight and fight and fight and fight and I yell and dad yells and it's just not good.
So we also instituted some rules. These would probably be very basic, simple rules at your house, but it's taken me 8 years to come up with:
Rule # 1 - No whining or shouting
Rule # 2 - No fighting with each other
Rule # 3 - No hitting or kicking
Violation of the aforementioned rules results in a time-out the number of minutes as the child's age.
I know you're thinking that any basic parent would have established these rules years and years ago (from infancy probably), but it takes me awhile to catch on to anything discpline related as I am so undisciplined myself.
posted by Musings of a Mom at 5:01 PM
3 Comments:
I could see the "no TV" thing being from God. I've heard Pastor Dan say several times that he believes TV watching should be minimal, and that it should not be in the main living area of your home. I see why he says this. I was lucky that my son wasn't too interested in TV...until about 2 months ago. Now I see how another child would get hooked faster, just because Zachariah watches it. I need to turn mine off more during the day. Good luck on the no TV rule. I'd love to hear how it goes.
The rules are great. It's not too late to start. As little as my son is, we already have rules. He can't argue with me (he still does, but I try not to let it go too far). If he argues, I ask him "Who's the boss". He says "Mommy" or sometimes "Mommy boss" (and he just started talking...HA). Then I say "Who's going to win?" and he says "Mommy". That usually ends the arguing right away. Seems crazy since he's so little, but he gets the idea. I think it's a great rule. ;)
8:50 PM
He's learning early - that's great! I never thought I'd allow a lot of TV as a mom, but it just became easier for keeping the peace. But I think it's a false, temporary peace, and it's catching up with us! I'll let you know how it goes.
9:40 PM
The TV is on a lot in our house right now simply because I am running out of ideas for the kids to be entertained in doors. They really are tired of being cooped up in the house so I've been pretty lax with TV time lately.
I'll be interested in knowing the results of the no TV plan and how it changes the environment in your house. Good luck!
8:34 PM
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