One Way Or Another

We have banned television. Period. This has led to a lot of sulking and grousing because there is no longer a selection of Magic School Bus, Between the Lions, and Cyberchase to watch. While we were sick (and that’s about two weeks, now, with one thing or another), the children developed the habit of sneaking downstairs at the crack of dawn and watching PBS indiscriminately (and that means all of the shows that I loathe, including The Berenstein Bears, Barney, Dragon Tails, and Caillou). That habit is now being broken. Slowly. Painfully. With much grousing and grumping and muttering about the unfairness of life.

I am currently holding my status as The Worst Mother Ever, and gaining in the It’s Not Fair and But I Used to Do This departments of parenting.

Also, now that the kitchen table has been cleaned off completely, there is great progress in the But I Don’t Like This department of dining. Previously, I’d been settling. Pasta with tomato sauce. Vegetable roll-ups. Yes, yes, all fairly healthy foods, but kind of a pain, in that no matter what I made, the kids would demand “their food”.

No longer. Now, they eat dinner (and that includes some of everything on nights where it is pasta with beef stew or the like) or they do not eat dinner. Eating dinner gets applause (although I’m considering the use of stickers or a magnetic chart) and cookies (because I’m at the end of my rope on this issue). Not eating dinner means an immediate bath and up to their room until stories and bedtime.

I’m working on it.

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