Monday, December 1, 2008

Let's go play

My daughter is a television addict. I'm not sure when it became a full-blown addiction. It started with a little "Sesame Street" in the morning, progressing into "Blues Clues" and "Dora the Explorer" until it blossomed into watching full-length Disney princess movies.


I think she even has a crush on "Diego," who she affectionately calls Eggo.


Yeah, she's got it bad.


In the morning, I hear, "I watch TV!"



In the evening, it's "I WATCH TV!"



Saturday morning I had a plan. A plan to re-introduce play to our television addicted daughter. After breakfast, the "I watch TV!" began as it usually does. But this cold Saturday, much to Sophia's dismay, did not begin with an episode of "Blues Clues." My refusal to turn on the TV was a power struggle I needed to win.


I told her we were going to the museum and she needed to get dressed so we could go. My plan was avoidance. If I could get everyone out the door before they got bored, I could succeed.





Philadelphia has a treasure I never had to really utilize before this weekend, it's called the Please Touch Museum. That was our destination.







The museum was everything I had hoped for and more.




We arrived at the museum shortly before 11 a.m. and didn't leave until almost 4 p.m. During our short lunch break, Sophia devoured her food. She ate like I've never seen her eat. When she was finished, she turned to me and said, "Let's go play!"

Yes, indeed. Let's go play.












Sophia cried when we left, but we promised to return. As soon as we started the car, both kids promptly fell asleep.
When we got home, we got ready for dinner and guess what …

Sophia asked to watch TV.

sigh

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great idea, and great fun! We need to find our local "Please Touch" museum in Austin!

Kudos for getting in some non-television activity. I have to remember this post when ours gets a little older. I knew that blogroll would come to be invaluable some day.

Laural Out Loud said...

I struggle with the same thing. I always give in because it's the only time I can get anything done! Though, now that I think about it, the more we're out of the house, the less chance my daughter has of walking behind me and making more messes!

CelticBuffy said...

Some habits are just hard to break. I've found that my kids tend to cycle with their tv addiction, it comes and it goes. Hope the same happens for you!