A little help, please. Here's the story:
This morning I woke up in a good mood. I made cranberry smoothies that Marty and I drank out of goblets. We studied our scriptures. Amazingly, the kids weren't up yet so I put their smoothies in the freezer and took a nice, hot bath. I'm thinking, "Could this morning get any better?" Then the kids woke up so I got their smoothies out and we all sat at the table together with our fun string of Valentine's day lights on. As I'm having a nice little chat with Brynn, I'm congratulating myself on the morning, and then Brynn responds to something I've said with:
"You're right, stupid."
She looks at me sweetly and innocently, like maybe she didn't realize she was insulting her mom. I came down on her like a hammer and demanded to know where she heard that, and she panicked for a minute and told me that HAMAN had said that to Esther! And I realized that all of those times I blamed my brothers for things like getting into my mom's make up, I SHOULD have been blaming a DEAD EVIL VILLAIN from the scriptures!
I never did get to the bottom of it, so maybe she really wasn't repeating something, maybe she really did put that sentence together on her own and called her own mother stupid. I don't know. Brynn is not a perfect girl by any means, but saying something like that is SO not like her. So now I'm having a change of heart and trying to figure out a plan for limiting TV time. I say I need a plan because if I just say I'll try to do less, who knows if it will really happen. In the afternoon, I often put on a movie for her in a dark room with a pillow and blanket for quiet time. What do your kids do for quiet time? I wonder if she'd go for just giving her a big stack of books? I also put on PBS in the morning sometimes when I'm getting ready for the day. I think I've started getting too relaxed on letting the kids pick out DVDs at the library. If I've never seen them, I almost always watch them with the kids, but I must admit that there are at least 2 or 3 movies Brynn could be getting "fun phrases" from and I wouldn't know it because I just didn't want to sit through them. Hmm. How do you limit your kids' TV time? And how picky are you about movies? Do your kids repeat phrases from those movies?
Just thoughts....
4 comments:
This is how your 31- YEAR OLD BROTHER reassigns blame: "I'm sorry you got mad at me" and "I didn't mean to get in trouble." With those big sappy blue eyes. ARGH.
LOL! Well, maybe you ARE stupid if it never crossed your mind to blame dead scripture villains for the bad things you did. HELLO!!! I thought everybody knew that trick.
Emma quotes movies for sure. But the worst things she's said have been learned from kids at school. Stupid kids. (heh.)
That's so sad when it happens. Our kid's first bad words were from school kids too. I remember the first time they repeated something I know they didn't hear from home, it's not fun. I personally gave up on quiet time, we usually have a schedule at our house. We go to the playground in the mornings and then they play with toys until lunch is ready and then we eat and then it's movie time. They really don't get time to watch anything that we haven't seen first and our rules are they never see something without us parents seeing it first. I hope this helps, but really, kids at school are going to be the biggest culprits.
gosh...the movie thing is so hard! THere are lots of pg movies that we will be watching as a family and after it is over, Matt and I are like never again (well, at least until they are older). They just soak up so much! ANd it's hard because you assume that pg movies should be family friendly!
As far as limiting tv goes...I seriously have to be pretty strict on it or else it is SO easy for me to resort to movies throughout the day. A lot of times it helps when I unplug it because it is a pain to get back there and plug it back in so I usually think again. right now we are going kind of extreme and the kids only watch one movie a week (friday night as a family). it's amazing how much they look forward to it and it is a treat for everyone! And it's amazing that since they are not in the habit of watching tv, they NEVER ask to watch movies anymore :)
it does make quiet time hard though. i've started just putting the kids in their rooms, on their beds with a stack of books. they usually read for awhile and then they can play quietly in their room but they have to stay in there! or else they have to nap :) it's good for them to get some quiet time I think and especially good for them to have to entertain themselves for a little bit.
but obviously, it isn't as ideal as a movie. there are excuses they make and they come out to go to the bathroom, etc but i'm trying to hold strong on that. that is what was my rule when i was little and i thought it was good.
anyways, sorry it is so long! don't feel bad about the "naughty word." matt was watching an old cowboy movie with the boys a few weeks back and as soon as emerson started repeating "you dang horse" matt figured it was time to turn it off :)
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