Just before and after Indy’s birth, with Sid’s ankle being fractured, we were in survival mode and there was a ton of screentime for all going on in our house. For Sid and I it was Veronica Mars on Netflix. We even put an old TV and DVD player in Jonny’s room to lure the three olders in there at night so that Sid and I could share our bed with just Indy. Previously I had been the mom saying I will NEVER put a TV in our childrens’ bedrooms. Heh heh, funny how the nevers never really mean never . . . wait . . . I knew the time was going to come for some limits to be set.
The limits were finally set last week. For Jonny, the most drastic limit enforced, has been the playing of the video games. Not that he had unlimited play before, but now there is a fixed rule. We’re currently testing out a 4 hours of video games per week protocol. He’s allowed to distribute the hours throughout the week as he chooses. For both of these weeks he has saved all the hours for Saturday! What a shift in our weekdays there has been! Also, Netflix (we don’t wach TV otherwise) has been limited to roughly 1 movie every few days. Due to the loss of the bedtime movies, I have committed to reading to the olders every night, until all three of them are asleep. Hooey, that Jonny can stay awake! But, hark! Even that has begun to shift. He has begun to fall asleep easier and faster. His bedtime book of choice is currently The Hardy Boys #2, The House on the Cliff. Ave has chosen The Lost Princess aka The Wise Woman, by George MacDonald (<3) again. I thoroughly enjoy this time of reading to them, yes thoroughly and deeply, inexpressibly, really.
Even though I’ve been thinking in this direction for some time, there is a book that has given me the encouragement, information, inspiration and motivation to follow through with all of this. That book is Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne and Lisa M. Ross. I got it on my Kindle.
I love it. I recommend it. I’m not following it 100%.
In just these two weeks of starting a simplification plan, I can hardly believe how good it feels, how smoothly it’s going and how much easier it is than I had imagined. When we aren’t doing lessons, the kids are really getting into their playing. It’s mainly been Playmobil, Legos, and Zombies (a game they love where they hunt zombies with all manner a weapon around the yard). I taught Ave to knit the other night and Jonny began weaving a scarf. So he’s concluded that he doesn’t love weaving, I just think it’s so cool that we spent time together with my loom, in front of the fire, weaving. And at least he knows he doesn’t love it from experience. These are things that never would have happened if the kids had had the freedom to turn on the Xbox instead.
We’ve been talking more, which I definitely didn’t think possible. Maybe we haven’t really been talking more, as much as we’ve been talking about more. I just can’t say enough good things about this positive change in our home. And again, I share this in case anyone is on the fence about trying something like this. I vote – do it.
