ever since my kids have been old enough to eat dry cereal by themselves i've allowed them to have breakfast in front of pbs kids. i know, i know, not exactly mommy of the year here. i dread mornings and often am the last one to wake. now that my kids are older, mapboy often gets them their breakfast before i make it down the stairs.
this worked great for awhile. i could sleep and they would eat cereal and yogurt while watching educational tv!! what a deal...however, this summer i started noticing that breakfast was becoming a 4-5 course meal dragging out over an hour. i would often find spoons, bowls, yogurt cups, crumbs, and an occasional spilled juice on the couch or floor. i got tired of getting them the next course and tired of cleaning up everything. so we tried making them clean...okay that helps, but i was still serving breakfast for an hour.
i made a new rule that started on monday morning...breakfast would be eaten at the table!!! no exceptions!!! mapboy was quite devastated b/c that would mean no tv first thing in the morning. the second half of the rule was that once they left the table they were done until lunch time - no exceptions!
monday arrived with no problems. all went well. my kids ate happily and were satisfied until lunch. it was tuesday morning trouble arrived. all was well until i set their cereal on the table and went to take a shower. when i opened the bathroom door i was met with a grin from mapboy. he very proudly stated, "we ate our cereal in the family room!!" he then turned and walked away.
WHAT?!?!!?! did he just come and with great pride confess that he had not obeyed me!! i couldn't believe it. i calmly walked into the family room and asked if they had indeed had breakfast there. there was no doubt about it - they had deliberately disobeyed. i was mad, but also shocked at the willing and immediete confession. it was quite clear that mapboy wanted to see just what i would do about it. after a few minutes i decided the best punishment would be to take away tv for 24 hours. without tv the temptation would be gone....
so today - we are without tv!! at first i thought i was insane for giving that up, but it has gone quite well....we just might go without everymoring from now on!!!!
you might also be interested in knowing that i have not had another prideful confession of sin in this house. we did have a rather humble on last night from a humbled mapboy!!!
this worked great for awhile. i could sleep and they would eat cereal and yogurt while watching educational tv!! what a deal...however, this summer i started noticing that breakfast was becoming a 4-5 course meal dragging out over an hour. i would often find spoons, bowls, yogurt cups, crumbs, and an occasional spilled juice on the couch or floor. i got tired of getting them the next course and tired of cleaning up everything. so we tried making them clean...okay that helps, but i was still serving breakfast for an hour.
i made a new rule that started on monday morning...breakfast would be eaten at the table!!! no exceptions!!! mapboy was quite devastated b/c that would mean no tv first thing in the morning. the second half of the rule was that once they left the table they were done until lunch time - no exceptions!
monday arrived with no problems. all went well. my kids ate happily and were satisfied until lunch. it was tuesday morning trouble arrived. all was well until i set their cereal on the table and went to take a shower. when i opened the bathroom door i was met with a grin from mapboy. he very proudly stated, "we ate our cereal in the family room!!" he then turned and walked away.
WHAT?!?!!?! did he just come and with great pride confess that he had not obeyed me!! i couldn't believe it. i calmly walked into the family room and asked if they had indeed had breakfast there. there was no doubt about it - they had deliberately disobeyed. i was mad, but also shocked at the willing and immediete confession. it was quite clear that mapboy wanted to see just what i would do about it. after a few minutes i decided the best punishment would be to take away tv for 24 hours. without tv the temptation would be gone....
so today - we are without tv!! at first i thought i was insane for giving that up, but it has gone quite well....we just might go without everymoring from now on!!!!
you might also be interested in knowing that i have not had another prideful confession of sin in this house. we did have a rather humble on last night from a humbled mapboy!!!
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