No TV, Pancakes Without Eggs & Fun vs. Entertainment

I had a day of admin today.  I am finding it amazing how much time little iddy bits of stuff can take.  Especially now that I am time sheeting my actual paid work. .. Mind you I am waiting on quite a lot of stuff at the moment.  So can't actually do much about it.  Apart from chasing.  And there is only so much of that you can do.  I will be using the phone tomorrow.....

And I did get lot of things that needed to get done done.  Iddy biddy - yet still important stuff.  Done and out of the way.  Yes.

And after school, as Hub is off in London today (and this evening) it was a me and Bub afternoon.

Hub and I had had a chat earlier about whether to make Bub continue in his dance class.  He isn't really enjoying it much, and it is expensive.  However we haven't helped because we haven't been supporting him in helping him learn his routine, or getting involved that much in it all.  It had been Bub's keen ness in the first place that had lead us to take him to a class.  But he isn't really very engaged, and we had been planning on just dropping it.  Hub felt that we were teaching him quitting, and that really we ought to try being more invovled, learning the routine with him, getting excited about it, and see if that supports him and makes it more fun for him.  And generally we had a chat about the principle of us needing to be behind him a little more, helping him and supporting him.  I am not sure if street dance really is his thing, but we thought that us supporting him might make the difference, and we ought to try that, and also he ought to continue until the show, after going the distance, and achieving something that he might well be really proud of himself for doing.  Ha! Hopefully anyway!!

Well its an experiment.  It feels a bit lame to just stop halfway through.  Bub can be a bit half hearted about anything (unless it is eating chocolate or watching Tom & Jerry on TV) so we are resolved to try a bit harder.

Which lead on to me not turning the TV on at all this evening.  He does demand it, and says he loves it.  From my point of view, I find that if he does watch too much TV or play Angry Birds too much, he actually gets really stroppy and whiney.  He will deny this of course, vocally!! But I find it to be true.  And whether there is just cause to this or not, I don't believe in entertainment.  Well not too much of it anyway.  What I mean by that, is that I fundamentally BELIEVE that you have to MAKE your own fun.  Otherwise its not fun, its......... entertainment. 

So this afternoon I decided to be firm and insist on no TV.  He did get very stroppy and we had a few incidents of stuff throwing anger at not getting his own way.  But he calmed down, he played for a while, he came voluntarily to help me cook dinner, which he ate large amounts of (even though the options previously had been BORING! I'M NOT EATING THAT), we then decided to make pancakes for pudding.  Quite experimentally as I didn't have any eggs.  (turns out you can make pancakes without eggs) After that we did 'story gang'  which is getting snuggled in and reading books, he got to choose the books, and we read them after he did a bit of reading practice.  He was delightful, and helpful (clearing up and wiping the table and all) and he chatted away.  It felt really lovely.  And the TV did not go on.  And in the end he forgot to ask about it.

I guess what I am getting to, is that with children, they do require a lot of input from us parents.  and yes it can be easier and less uptight to let him have his way and let him watch loads of TV. But its up to us to educate him, in so many more matters than learning to read or write.  And as he is only 5 we can still insist so much easier.  And get him involved with cooking and talking and inventing his own games.  Its like playing the long game.  And we owe him. At least I want him to know the difference between FUN and entertainment.