Hello fellow Moms! It’s me, the perfect Mother!
Just Kidding, this is what I thought my parenting skills would be. I quickly found out I was wrong. You see right now we are in a really bad habit.
I cringe at telling you that currently, my child watches too much TV. Someone grab the torches and call the cops. If there’s one thing parents are proud of EVERYWHERE, it’s that their children don’t watch television. I know plenty of parents have and will put on a 15 minute cartoon but for some reason, this is my parenting fail I feel most guilty about.
I do limit and monitor TV time. We have a TV “schedule” and I’m picky about what shows she views. I swear guys, I don’t turn the tv on to anything that is animated and walk away for the entire day.
BUT…..
We are going through something right now. The 2-1 Nap transition. For those of you who have gone through it, you have my sympathies. For those of you who haven’t, just wait.
It’s been so difficult to get to a decent nap time for the past few months that, well, Daniel Tiger and Mickey Mouse are my new best friends. The old Tv schedule was 15-30 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes at night. Lately it’s been that Plus 15 Minutes in the hour before nap and ANOTHER 15 Minutes around 4-4:30. (FOR SHAME)
My daughter’s brain and body simply could not handle Toddler life on one nap. Yet, if I gave her two naps we’d all be partying until 11:30pm. (what would you think of me then?) So, my solution was to get her to sit her behind down for a few minutes and take a little break.
It worked. It gave her time to reset until nap or bed time. At some point I started to panic though. I felt like she was watching entirely too much TV. It didn’t matter that we go to the park, run errands, have play dates, and read at least 4 books a day. I was hung up on being a bad Mom for putting 30 extra minutes of screen time into the mix.
One day it dawned on me that this was just a current bad habit and we’ve had them before. There was that week that my child refused to eat anything but peanut butter, cheese, or hot dogs. There was the month she got in the kitchen cabinets no less than 10 times a day regardless of punishment, and I’m sure the next one is down the road.
Slowly, but surely, this transition has already started to take root. Now, for the most part, we’re back to the old schedule plus one 15 minute segment and snack before nap. The day she got 3 shots, we watched the Tigger Movie. Sorry not Sorry, shots stink.
She watched 2 episodes of Daniel Tiger so I could watch the last quarter of the Iron Bowl in peace, and Yep she watched Toy Story during our two hour drive for Thanksgiving. I’ve decided she’ll live.
Sometimes in parenting we have to make the “bad choice” to survive. Personally, I think that’s okay. As long as you remind yourself this is just a phase and work towards ending it, everything will be fine in the end. So the next time you sheepishly admit your child hasn’t had anything but goldfish all do, or hasn’t let you cut his nails in a week, remember we have all been there. In some form or fashion, we’re still there.
