I WANT MORE TV!!
Tonight, during toxic hour, we had Twin Trouble standing a few feet away from the TV, utterly entranced for a full ten minutes. Husband and I looked at each other unashamedly delighted. The TV has been a saviour during that time of the day that we parents just love. You know what I’m talking about. Dinner, play, bath, play, books, bed with a goodly amount of tanty throwing, thrown in. When I am on my own during this time (I mostly am seeing I am the sucker who gets home first), I have not yet figured out a way to feed the food throwing, plate banging, mess masters while at the same time keeping Mr 4 happy, busy and fed. Furthermore, if I leave the twins alone in the backyard with their dinner one of two things will happen. Their food will end up buried in the sand pit, or, the local birds will fight them for it, and win. The only way is to set the big one up in front of the TV while I wrangle the other two. Thank goodness for Mike the Knight is all I can say. So far the twins have not given the TV even so much as a passing glance. In a perfect world, if I was the perfect mother, I’d encourage this non-interest by engaging them in other, more worthy activities. Like, um…other stuff….but alas I have but two arms, two legs and only one shred of sanity remaining, so TV it is. With a sheepish grin I tell you, I can’t wait for the day when I can have all three entranced for just a little while. I pinkie promise that once we can all sit round a table for dinner, we will. We just need to ditch the food throwing and master the art of putting food in our mouths and not in Teddy’s mouth (or lack thereof). Oh, and be able to like, sit down. For at least 10 minutes.
Given my liberal attitude to TV, it is funny that my lofty ideals about gaming are totalitarian. The boys I work with have heads so full of gaming violence and the lack of sleep from 12 hour gaming binges, that I have become more resolute than ever before that no boy of mine will sit inside all day and play a playstation. This came up at work the other day, that I am a mother of boys and will have to face the whole nintendo-playstation-whatever dilemma at some point. Over my dead body I was heard to declare. This was met with head shaking chuckles from my older colleagues of bigger kids. Is this a generational thing? Am I going to be like one of those I’ll never have a mobile phone types from the early 90s (of which I was one for about 5 minutes)? Are my boys going to fight me on this tooth and nail? Because boys, I have bad news, I feel the same about pay TV. I can see it coming, I’m going to be one of those old fashioned parents whose kids eye roll at their infuriating refusal to move with the times. Let the games begin!
Passing Phase 