About a month ago, I was talking to my friend, Carrie, and she mentioned that she was going on a media fast with her kids. Carrie and I lived in the same Asian city and I remembered both of doing it before when our kids were much younger. It sparked something in me to do it again with my kids. We had gone on tv overload in the first few weeks of Tucker's life. I spent most of my time in my chair nursing that it was much easier to let the tv keep the kids company. And so we got in a rut. I am just being honest with you here. When Jack would wake up in the morning he would ask to watch Mickey Mouse and if it wasn't on at the time or if I didn't let him do it right away, he would throw a fit. It was then that I knew, we needed to take a break. And so we did. I was nervous, what would we do with our time? I thought, well, let's just take it a day at a time. And day one was hard, they didn't understand at first and asked a billion times to watch tv. But day two got easier, and day three was even better. Before you know it, my kids were playing make believe and doing all kinds of things together. They were loving it. And by the end of the week, things had changed. Attitudes had changed, the tv was no longer just back ground noise. We are going on about a month of no tv during the day and it has done wonders. I have been able to use this time to teach and train them so much more.
I know that many of you probably already do this with your kids and think, well duh, tv isn't good for them. And of course I know that, but it is so easy to get a rut and not really know how to get out of it.
So for me and my family, this has been great! I love to see my children be creative and make obstacle courses on their own and to make up stories and read books together.
Another area that I have cut down on tremendously is sugar. About a month ago, I was at my wits end with my kids. I knew that something needed to change. And so I cut down their sugar. I have seen miraculous changes in them. Even friends have noticed that they are much calmer. I have a long way to go in the diet part, but I am trying so hard to cut out all processed foods and do a whole foods approach. It's little by little, but I am trying.
Well, I must end this post for now, I have other things I wanted to say, but I have a crying baby in the background and I just can't concentrate enough to write coherently.....can anyone relate?? ;-)
5 comments:
So when y'all have friends over, and - hypothetically - cookies are involved, said friends need to eat ALL the cookies...hypothetically.
Duly noted.
Can relate in SO many ways!!
Love your post! I find when we get busy I tend to rely on videos. This is such a good reminder and I love how the kids create and imagine things! Blessings to you all! Love,
Sarah A
That sounds hard to do but so wonderful! I can relate in a few ways. We've put the Wii up during the week, and once James got tired of asking for it he started playing again by himself, which was such a relief. I would like the TV to be off more than it is, too.
You know it's o funny. When our TV is turned off my kids don't even notice it. They will play for hours without it but the 2nd it is on, they just automatically sit down in front of it. So we try (try being the operative word) to never have it on in the afternoons and evenings. They do watch one or to in the mornings. As for the sugar- please send me tips!
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