This was a household rule established this summer. I realized that we were spending too much time in front of the TV and not enough time doing other things. Florida’s weather in the summer is often unpredictable yet it seems to rain just enough to watch a 20 minute kid’s show. I also figured that if the sun was shining my kids needed to be doing other than watching TV. I didn’t matter if were inside or out, they need to be “doing.”
Because of this rule I noticed four things happening.
Throughout our TV journey, there was one constant. No matter how many hours they sat in front of it or if they had gone days without watching one show, they asked every day, “Mom, can we watch a movie?
Because of this rule I noticed four things happening.
- My kids began to take an unusually high interest in the weather. They would look out the window for clouds or just flat out ask, “Is it going to rain today?” I was proud of this new interest in meteorology until I remember they wanted to watch TV!
- I began looking out the window for rain. This usually happened when I was making dinner or around the time a sibling fight broke out in my living room. Telling them to “go read a book” did no good when they were hitting each other over the head with the books. I wanted a few sprinkles to justify “TV only when it rains.
- Amendments to the rule began to pop up. Examples included: Watch a movie, you haven’t watched one all day; It’s Saturday morning and I want to sleep in; Leave me alone
- A routine began to fall into place. We found a happy median between too much and none. I was happy with how much time they were spending in front of the TV.
Throughout our TV journey, there was one constant. No matter how many hours they sat in front of it or if they had gone days without watching one show, they asked every day, “Mom, can we watch a movie?