My kids watch too much TV. Way too much TV. Of course they think they watch not quite enough TV, and would I kindly please turn it back on again thankyouverymuch? But secretly, they know they watch too much TV as well.
I'm trying to cut down their habit - of course I know that I can just turn it off and that's it, but c'mon, that's not reality. Right now they're watching "show" (as its known around here) while I write this, and frankly I probably wouldn't be writing now if they weren't. We all need some help to curb the habit!
Lately I've been trying out a new system that works reasonably well. Every morning I make up "show tickets" that are worth a half-hour of TV watching each. They redeem them for the shows they'd like to watch, and when the tickets are gone, the TV goes off. I've been giving them between 4-6 tickets, which is still too much TV but better than where they were. The best part about this system is it gets them to ration the viewing themselves - they have to choose which shows to watch, and to turn the TV off if they're running low on tickets that they'd like to save for a later time. I haven't really let them save them up for another day yet, but I suppose that's a possibility. I'm sure there will be more conflict with this system later on when Little Buddy has more of an opinion about which programs to watch, but for now that's not an issue. At times the hardest part is holding firm when the tickets run out and they're still whining for TV, especially when its late and dinner needs to get on the table and I could really use the distraction!
I know this will be an ongoing battle, and it will probably only get worse, but I hope that if I can get some control over it right now, it will make things easier later on. Fingers crossed!
0 comments:
Post a Comment