Micah has a new best friend, and her name is Dora. How oh how did we create an addict? It wasn't so long ago that Micah's TV viewing was limited to the occasional glance. He came home from daycare and played with blocks or trains, or "helped" me cook. But somehow, in the last few months, Dora has crept in slowly and steadily, first earning her place because she offered a few words of Spanish, and then serving as a convenient transition time from daycare to dinner. But suddenly, she's become an obsession, to the extent that there are tears, kicking, and screaming occurs when we turn it off.
And turn her off we do. Because really, Dora has very little redeeming value. Yes, she speaks Spanish occasionally, and yes she does teach some navigation skills and nature/cultural facts. But when I see the trance my son goes into when she is on, I know that can't be good.
We even had a little incident where Micah sulkily told us "Your not my mommy" and "you're not my daddy," after we turned Dora off for dinnertime. I'm pretty sure it isn't in the good parenting manual, but we had to have a little discussion of shipping him back to India and what we would do with the $$ we spend on daycare each month.
And Dora is also not helping our potty training efforts. Due to the aforementioned trance, there have been way more accidents at home than we'd like {daycare is mostly accident-free these days.}
Thoughts and suggestions on how to cut the TV obsession without throwing the box out the window?
And turn her off we do. Because really, Dora has very little redeeming value. Yes, she speaks Spanish occasionally, and yes she does teach some navigation skills and nature/cultural facts. But when I see the trance my son goes into when she is on, I know that can't be good.
We even had a little incident where Micah sulkily told us "Your not my mommy" and "you're not my daddy," after we turned Dora off for dinnertime. I'm pretty sure it isn't in the good parenting manual, but we had to have a little discussion of shipping him back to India and what we would do with the $$ we spend on daycare each month.
And Dora is also not helping our potty training efforts. Due to the aforementioned trance, there have been way more accidents at home than we'd like {daycare is mostly accident-free these days.}
Thoughts and suggestions on how to cut the TV obsession without throwing the box out the window?
