Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Withdrawals


This last week B-man watched a lot of television. He really had no choice, it was the easy way to keep him separated from germs, and to keep him entertained while both parents were sick. Normally he watches at most an hour a day, but some days he doesn't watch any. Sunday he literally watched it all day as M and I were both in a stupor from being sick. Now we are paying for it with some serious withdrawals.

All day yesterday (when he wasn't in school) he kept whining and asking to watch t.v. We kept saying no, and trying to entertain him with other methods. Nothing worked. He went to bed crying about it. He suddenly became obsessed with a "Rescue Heroes" show that I didn't even know existed. Apparently he is trying to learn the theme song to it... M and I even had our own FHE about what we were going to do, and how he could "earn" t.v. time.

Today I thought was going to be more of the same. It started out with an equal number of tantrums, but then magically in the early evening things started to calm down. The weather was nice enough so that we could go outside (not possible last week) and he remembered how to use his imagination. He still mentioned it a few times, but he wasn't in panic mode, and he didn't cry himself to sleep about it. What a relief! They don't call it the "wretched stone" for nothing!

3 comments:

debby said...

i know what you mean. at the beginning of my pregnancy, madeleine watched a lot of disney movies and i'm still paying for it now. we were doing better when the weather was nice, but not it is colder out and i am trying to get the house packed up, so it's been bad again.

Amber said...

I know what you mean! Good job sticking to it! It is amazing how quickly they loose their imagination. I am happy it is coming back for him =).

B said...

Great job staying strong! I love that you encourage him to play and use his imagination instead of letting the TV do all the work. Kudos to you two. (And I hope you're feeling better!)