It's been awhile since I've updated, but let me tell you it's been busy. After the first day of summer break went so poorly, I lowered my expectations and have let the days be more kid driven than mom driven. I don't have things planned out as specifically as I initially did. That has helped things go a little bit better.
We've had some unexpected events of the week. A family member was ill and had to have surgeries so we had extra guests at the house. I went and did some consulting out of town and so grandma and grandpa did some babysitting. Now grandma and grandpa know about my goal, but it is not their own goal. So while I was gone grandma and grandpa let them play the ipad and watch t.v. On day 11, I caved for an hour total of ipad time. We had a slight drain back up problem that I had to attend to and we had a guest in the house and I just desperately needed that time. I felt guilty afterwards. But for only one cave in out of 11 days, I feel okay with that. I even downloaded some new free apps in front of the kids and they knew they wouldn't get to play them.
The screen time restriction has been worth it. I've noticed some positive changes in my kids with the removal of screen time. Their imaginative play skills have really enhanced. Peyton is now building runways and military bases out of a wider variety of objects. Peyton finally had the attention span to assemble a 400+ lego set all on his own. Tiffany has finally stopped making the daily request for the ipad or t.v. She gets things to play with and I don't even have to ask her. They have been asking to go outside all the time which has been great, I just wish mother nature would agree!
One of the biggest challenges of having the kids playing together so much more is that they sure get angry with each other a lot. This means that someone is constantly running to me to be a tattle tell. "Mom, Tiffany won't let me play with Paris," or "Mom, Peyton squeezed my arm!" Seriously, if you aren't bleeding don't tell me! I'd love to hear how some of you handle the tattle tell phenomenon.
Until next time....
We've had some unexpected events of the week. A family member was ill and had to have surgeries so we had extra guests at the house. I went and did some consulting out of town and so grandma and grandpa did some babysitting. Now grandma and grandpa know about my goal, but it is not their own goal. So while I was gone grandma and grandpa let them play the ipad and watch t.v. On day 11, I caved for an hour total of ipad time. We had a slight drain back up problem that I had to attend to and we had a guest in the house and I just desperately needed that time. I felt guilty afterwards. But for only one cave in out of 11 days, I feel okay with that. I even downloaded some new free apps in front of the kids and they knew they wouldn't get to play them.
The screen time restriction has been worth it. I've noticed some positive changes in my kids with the removal of screen time. Their imaginative play skills have really enhanced. Peyton is now building runways and military bases out of a wider variety of objects. Peyton finally had the attention span to assemble a 400+ lego set all on his own. Tiffany has finally stopped making the daily request for the ipad or t.v. She gets things to play with and I don't even have to ask her. They have been asking to go outside all the time which has been great, I just wish mother nature would agree!
One of the biggest challenges of having the kids playing together so much more is that they sure get angry with each other a lot. This means that someone is constantly running to me to be a tattle tell. "Mom, Tiffany won't let me play with Paris," or "Mom, Peyton squeezed my arm!" Seriously, if you aren't bleeding don't tell me! I'd love to hear how some of you handle the tattle tell phenomenon.
Until next time....
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