Bad Parent: Screen Queen
My daughter watches up to six hours of TV a day.
by Jeanne Sager
March 27, 2008
I wake up to a remote control being bounced off the bridge of my nose.
My daughter's voice has reached fever pitch, and it's only 6:30 in the morning.
"Mom, Mom, can I watch TV? Please, please, please?"
Now she's bouncing in the space recently vacated by my husband, who's off to work.
Sure, it's early, but as far as I'm concerned, he's escaping. He doesn't have to listen to these piercing squeals.
If I give in, I won't have to either. I slip my hand out of the warmth of our comforter and slide it across flannel, feeling for the spot where the remote landed when it ricocheted from my nose. I point it in the general direction of the TV on our dresser and press "power."
"There you go, honey," I mumble, but it's muffled, my head already burrowing back into my pillow.
My daughter goes from sixty to zero. Mommy's stint as a human trampoline is over. Jillian is already curled in a fetal position, her head on Daddy's pillow, her eyes fixed on Cookie Monster as he once again devours the letter of the day.
"Cookie Monster's funny," she says through a fit of giggles. Apparently, that joke never gets old. But I have.
Two years ago, I called my husband at work, horrified. My friend had dropped her three-year-old off for the day, and he'd spent the morning demanding the Disney Channel.
"Can you believe it?" I asked Jonathan, full of righteous indignation.
Apparently, Cookie Monster never gets old. But I have.
"I had books I picked up at the library yesterday. Boy books! Books just for him! And all he wants to do is watch TV. What are they teaching him?"
"It's okay, honey," he said. "Just let him watch a little TV. He's fine. I watched TV, and I'm fine, right?"
"Yeah, fine," I muttered to our then-infant daughter as I got off the phone. "Daddy's fine, but his world revolves around SportsCenter. And God forbid the cable goes out . . . oh, noooooooo."
©2008 Jeanne Sager and Nerve Media
About the Author
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Jeanne Sager is a freelance writer and photographer living in upstate New York with her husband and daughter, Jillian. She maintains a blog of her award-winning columns at jeannesager.blogspot.com. |
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