What happened here? During Kailan’s first almost two years of his life he would wander past the TV, barely stopping to give it a disdainful glance, and carry on with his play.
Oh my, how times have changed!
Now, when Kailan wakes up in the morning, greeting the rising sun with an auspicious wave of the hand at 5-freaking-am, he heads directly to our bed to announce he wants to watch TOONS!!! As we grunt our acquiescence, he wanders off to the guest bedroom and plunks himself a few feet in front of the little TV that he can turn on ALL! BY! HIMSELF!
I can’t tell you how enthusiastic we were when he learned how to do that…it meant we didn’t have to get out of bed at 5-freaking-am.
He is now obsessed with the TV. If he sleeps in and doesn’t get to watch any TOONS!! before getting ready for daycare, the world is coming to an end. The only way we can get him to stop throwing a tantrum is to tell him that if he doesn’t stop he won’t get to watch TV when he comes home from daycare. We are all about the punishment fitting the crime. Yeah.
It came to our attention that we are utter failures as his parents when Anya was able to sing the ABC song through to the end, knowing all the letters, and Kailan stopped at about “F”…as in failure.
“I think you need to watch less TV, Kai. More books from now on!”
He now mostly knows the ABC song, but dang if he doesn’t want to watch TV all the time. It is indeed a brain sucker.
Now that the weather is finally turning nice, it’s time to get some exercise playing outside. Hopefully we can start weaning him off the TOONS!! and get him to start reading more books. One thing is for certain, he won’t be getting a TV in his room anytime soon. He would never sleep, heck, he barely sleeps now.
That would be utter insanity on our part. They haven’t driven us insane yet…we are teetering on the edge at times, but they haven’t made the final push. I’m waiting to be thrown into the abyss when they turn into teenagers. At that point, I’m sure I won’t know ANYTHING, be completely lacking any style and an embarrassment to them in all regards. Guess I might as well be insane then! 😉
We’ve never, ever restricted television. Well, the content, yes. The amount of time, no. The boys each went through a phase when they were two or so when they wanted to watch all the time, but after just a while they self-regulated. Now they will watch perhaps a 15 or 20 minute segment when we get home in the afternoons, and then their movie at bedtime (in our room–no tv in their room, and there won’t be, either). On a rainy day, or just an “off” day, perhaps they’ll watch more, but it’s not usual. They’d rather play. Perhaps your little guy will regulate, too…
At almost 1 1/2, my little gal still shows absolutely zero interest in television. Which is a good thing, really – I’m glad she’s not a tv baby! But…at the same time, it sure would come in handy for 20 minutes of peace from time to time!
Alissa, There are some days where he doesn’t watch so much, so I hope he is starting to self regulate. I think with the weather warming up he wants to play more and ride his bike so hopefully his addiction will get better!
Christina, that is what Kai was like at 1.5, too. He had no interest in the tv. When he turned around 2, that was when he started wanting to watch cartoons. It is nice, you can get more done, but too much and they just become sloths!