Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Rules

I always like the rules I give my children to have a good reason behind them, preferably with a nice natural reward or consequence to back them up. For example, when my four-year-old started demanding snacks at night, I made a firm "You can't have food after you brush your teeth" rule. I told him the consequences (little things eat your teeth and make cavities) and the rewards (strong teeth for chomping things), and for the most part it's worked flawlessly (yay! one less delaying tactic at bedtime!).

So. Right now I'm trying to figure out what to do about electronic entertainment. See, I like playing Wii and computer games. I like traipsing around the internet. I like movies and many TV shows, and I want to share all those things with our children. But I like reading more, and I know that if my parents hadn't been so strict about TV, I wouldn't be the reader I am right now. It's so easy to let the boys play Lego Star Wars, yet I know it needs limits. They also need to play with their actual Legos, and run outside, and read books.

This is getting longer than I intended. Basically, I want my kids to enjoy games and TV. I just want them to do things they love (build stuff, read, draw, whatever) and necessary things (homework, chores, keeping the cats alive) first. I am off to my Planning Cave, to try making up a plan that will work (and preferably not be so complicated that I give up). Hooray! Here is a video to celebrate!


8 comments:

  1. Reading is important. My friend limits the time his kids can play games. But I read a good one about a man who hooked up the electricity to an exercise bike (TV and game consoles) where the player/watchers had to pedal to keep power. Good idea! lol

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    1. That...is awesome. I shall find a bike posthaste. Except our kids are too short to REACH pedals right now. :)

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  2. I don't envy parents of today who have to find a balance between "real" play time, reading, running around, all the electronic stuff, and TV of course. I am grateful to have grown up before TV came to Sweden, so I could do sports, play, and best of all read books.

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    1. Sports, playing, AND books are ideal. Hopefully we can teach the boys how fun each one is!

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  3. Hello again! When I was a child, chocolate always worked for me as a reward. Come to think of it, it still does! ; )

    Your post really reminded me of something in The Spellman Files novels by Lisa Lutz - a teenage girl character called Rae who watches way too much TV. Her best friend Henry (a police detective) wanted her to watch less TV and read more books, so he set a rule - one hour of TV as a reward for one hour of reading. In theory, it would make Rae want to read more books and watch less TV, but I'm not sure it worked out that way! This will probably make more sense if you've read the books too! If not, I'd highly recommend them - they're a really great, fun read!

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    1. Samara! I totally need some new books to read, so I'll have to check those out! The "in theory" sounds intriguing to me, and I really enjoyed Richelle Mead (like you, I liked the succubus books more, but the vampire ones were also fun!). Hooray for more books to read!

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  4. I adore the Spellman novels - definitely check them out if you get the chance. I suppose they'd be defined as comedy crime. A bit like the Stephanie Plum novels, which I also love. I mostly read sci-fi/fantasy novels, but sometimes it's nice to have a change and read something a bit lighter.

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    1. I like reading anything that's funny. I will put them on my library list! Thanks, Samara!

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