Thursday, April 21, 2005
Kids, TV, and the World’s Worst Mother Award
Ever notice that the people who worry about being the World’s Worst Mother are the ones who don’t need to?
Anyway, I probably don’t need to say that I agree with Rosemary on the kids and TV thing, but I will anyway. I just don’t buy that all of the ills of modern kids stem from too much time in front of the set, but that’s probably natural, since I’m not sure how much I buy some of the ills themselves. Maybe I’m missing something, but the mild end of the ADD/ADHD thing sounds an awful lot like what was considered normal when I was a kid. Kids want to run around and yell and scream and get way fidgety and can’t pay attention by the end of a class period that’s too long for them? Fails to surprise me at all. I wonder how many cases would disappear with a few pacing changes and the return of recess. But I digress…
Maybe I don’t buy the TV thing because I don’t want to. Call me a crap mother, but I don’t want to give up TV myself. It’s not like I can sedate the baby when the West Wing comes on, after all. Putting her in the other room and letting her scream for an hour isn’t really an option, either. Generally, we put her on the floor in the living room and let her play while we watch, and most things she’ll mostly ignore, but there are times when she gets absolutely engrossed by things that she probably shouldn’t be watching. I shrug my shoulders and figure I turned out ok, and really, that’s good enough for me. I’m almost surprised at myself for this, but I don’t seem to be in possession of an obsessive need to do everything “perfectly” as a mom (as if such a thing is possible, since many of the recommendations out there are contradictory, but that’s another post).
In any case, the kiddo loves American Idol, since she flips out over music of any sort, and she’ll occasionally sit still for something else, but mostly she can’t be bothered to look at the TV because she’s entranced by the coffeetable at the moment, being as it’s such an excellent thing to hold on to so she can practice standing up. There are days when I wish I could get her to sit still and watch something so I could have a break, and I’m looking forward to a time when she’s not quite so obsessed with her own increasing mobility and I can sit her down in front of the Teletubbies and get a shower. Of course, by then with any luck there will be a younger one in a different phase and I still won’t get a shower, but that’s ok. Nobody ever said that motherhood was a clean profession. Heh.