Friday, December 07, 2007

R is for Repetition

Before we had kids I swore I would NEVER be one of those Moms that EVER let or set her child in front of a television instead of, well, anything else. Sooooo foolish!! Then, I became pregnant with baby #2 and didn't feel so good, okay, so it was more like lousy and it was too easy to turn on a movie and let Caleb watch that while I lay on the couch concentrating on keeping my meals down. Luckily, the feeling of lousiness was short-lived and replaced with lots of visitors and travel and outings to the park and walks and I thought I was saved and could still be the "perfect, totally engaged, always focused on stimulating my child" parent. SO, SO, SO FOOLISH!!

Then, we took a trip to Paris and with the 30+ hours of flying and 7 hour time difference, Nemo and Dumbo and Pinocchio and all their friends came back to visit and since then have never left. Caleb started saying "Nemo" over and over and over again - and while we didn't always acquiesce, sooner or later it was too hard to ignore his pleadings and we gave in. Eventually, we discovered that "Nemo" was also the word for movie and so we didn't have to watch just "Finding Nemo" anymore, we could watch (among others):

Cars

Winnie The Pooh

Mary Poppins

And as many episodes of The Backyardigans as possible (I must admit,
we are all big fans of this program and I feel like it is less of a zoning out
opportunity than some of the fare we indulge him in)

Caleb has since learned to say "tv" instead of Nemo and now wakes up every morning and from all naps saying "tv?", "tv?" "tv?" No, he doesn't watch tv as often as he would like (we have convinced him there are other fun things to do), but that doesn't seem to effect his repeated requests to view any and all options in our vast (thanks to grandma and grandpa) kids movie collection. I will say this, his love of tv is going to make my solo flight with him from Lima to SLC via Atlanta next Friday much more pleasant!

8 comments:

Ilene said...

Love the Backyardigans. I remember thinking the same sort of stuff with my first too. Now I feel it a good day if I limit Jackson to only one episode a day.

Backyardigans and Little Einsteins make me feel not so bad. And then there are the "Signing Time" DVDs which I don't count as t.v. at all since it is all very educational.

Can you imagine life as a traveling mother pre-portable DVD device? I can't. That is why I wasn't assigned pioneer duty.

Katharine said...

Oh Lindsey,

I soooooooo understand where you are coming from! I was totally the same way..."my child...tv...NEVER!!!" YEAH RIGHT!!!!! I think sometimes the only time I can get something, anything accomplished is if I turn something on for Addy to watch. Otherwise my little shadow is following me around and getting into every thing and anything she can. Granted there are limited programs to watch and I try to limit it to 20 min or so a day (we have not done the feature length film yet... I am sure that will come when the baby does though). It is so nice to have at least a few moments of quiet a day. And, knowing that Addy is at least learning something makes me feel better. We allow her to watch, one segment of seseme street, or baby einstine, or baby signing time, oh and she loves the songs section from Sound of Music. Have not ventured out much beyond that yet. Although she did see a few blips of The Wiggles once and was asking for it over and over again for weeks. That is one that drives me bonkers!!! I say live and let live! If it helps you be a better mom let him watch movies. You know that its not a replacement for you! As for the plane ride...girlfriend without my DVD player and baby einstine I don't think I could have survived as much traveling as we have done! GOOD LUCK!!!

Jessica said...

I was going to have a small TV that I kept up in a closet and only brought it out to watch movies...remember that Paige and Adrianne?! Like our mothers were all so lame to let us watch TV and we knew better! So, my kids only watch an hour a day and that is very hard during the boring snoring winter, but it's my way of compromising with myself.

Heather said...

Baby Benadryl would make a good combination with the tv for the flight. It's pediatrician approved!

Jake said...

I'm dreading that flight for you! Good luck!

I also have caved on the tv...but sometimes that is the ONLY thing to do!

D-dawg said...

We LOVE Backyardigans. Their songs are so fun to sing along to. I pick them the most especially for in the car.

Celia Fae said...

I won't let my kids watch anything shorter than an hour. I don't want to have to interact with them any sooner. Luxury is when the kid can change the channel by themself.

Adrianne said...

Sometimes when Gabe has been parked in front of Baby Einstein for more than an hour I have random guilt fits and I think about Jessica and her no-changed-to-limited tv policy and I try to remember why tv is bad, and I can't.

 

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