Have a Good Night At Work, Dad. You’re Blocking the TV


Photo-A-Day #2955

I kid, my children are not TV zombies most of the time. We do tend to let them watch a little in the morning because we are up early and have time before school. Andrew watches a few shows that calm him down when he’s being ‘melty’. When he’s stomping around the house and can’t quite focus on any one thing and you can’t get him to sleep, or eat anything or play with anything but you put on Henry Huggle Monster, Daniel Tiger, Sofia the First or Doc McStuffins and he drops everything to stand and watch the TV. We have these shows at the ready on the DVR and on Demand. Many 2, 3, 4, and 5am wake ups with Andrew that do not end quickly with a snuggle and two sung renditions of ‘Hush Little Baby’ require a snuggle on the couch with Daniel, Henry, Sofia or Doc.

So yeah, we let the kids watch some TV. I make no apologies about that. They certainly get enough time reading, or being read to, coloring, dancing, swimming and more. So some TV each day is fine in my book. Some of the most creative stories Eva has come up with revolve around her and characters from her favorite TV shows. She writes stories about them, tells stories about them, draws and colors characters from shows and more creative things than I can imagine.

This post was sort of inspired by what I read in the Huffington Post’s article by Steve Wiens titled: To Parents of Small Children: Let Me Be the One Who Says It Out Loud. If you are a parent of a small child read it, if you are not and your kids are older or are grown, read it and understand more about what we are going through each day.