*sigh*

having my husband home was wonderful. i love being able to spend time with him, and when he gets home in the evenings after work, he's often so tired we just sit, and... just sit. during the time he was looking for work, he was home all the time other than brief excursions for job interviews, or when we went out as a family to get things for the house. it was wonderful, spending all day with him, helping him fix up the house: painting walls; cleaning walls; ripping up carpet; moving furniture. and the critter loved having his daddy home too.

but.. much as i loved it, it threw everything off. i got out of routine, because i was busily helping him with things instead of doing what i normally do. the critter got all.. weird... because daddy was home all the time, and he got confused. he was also watching a lot more TV than i would have liked, both because hubby would turn it on during his breaks, and because i was using it to keep him out of harms way, but i decided it was the least bad of the options open to me. the other options were: let hubby do all the work himself, and get in a bad mood cause he's tired, try and keep the child out of his way, fail at this and deal with a 3 year old's tantrums, and generally have the house in disarray; OR let the child help us with things like bleaching the walls and scraping paint chips off, risking exposure to poisonous chemicals (theres a distinct possibility we were dealing with lead paint. i am quite willing to risk things i would never let him be exposed to), and getting in the way and making everything take longer.

after thinking about it for a while, these seemed like much worse options than: turn on a Wiggles or Disney DVD to keep the 3 year old busy while i help hubby with the fixing, thus keeping child out of harms way, and our way, and getting everything done in half the time. the only problem is that now, he keeps asking to watch more TV.

he was getting very good about the TV. it gets turned on in the morning while we eat breakfast, and turned off at 10am when playschool is over*. he gets up and turns the TV off on his own with no prompting. but since daddy has been home, he keeps asking to watch movies, and throwing little tantrums when he isnt allowed. im not sure what to do to help him.

am i doing the right thing simply turning it off and not allowing any extra? should i try and wean him back down slowly? i really dont know. when we decided to get rid of his dummy (pacifier, binky, whatever you want to call it), we cut down slowly. first he could only have it while he was asleep (including the first ten minutes after waking up when he really wasnt with it), then only at night, then we threw it away. i dont know if doing this with the TV would be better.. cut him down to an extra 1/2 hour a day, then get less and less... i dont know.. but i think im going to continue with just turning it off and deal with the tantrums until he gets back into routine.

i did love having my husband home, but it has made it hard to get back to normal. just one of the things you deal with in life i suppose. not everything can be exactly as you want.






*i know this is more TV than many people will allow, and many people will think i am ruining him doing this. well, my child, my choice. also, most programs on ABC-kids are educational, and even when the TV is on, most of the time he is not watchin it, but running around the house like a mad thing, doing puzzles, building with his blocks, and playing 'family' with his teddies. hes not glued to the TV like some kids are. despit this, quite honestly, TV is the only reason he talks as well as he does. i am not a big talker (if i was on my own, i could happily go a few weeks without saying a single word), although ive made myself talk a lot more for his sake, but despite my best efforts, he didnt talk till after 18months, and he picks up a lot more from the TV than from me. so if TV helps him developmentally, im quite happy to let him watch "more than is good for him".

once the tv is turned off at 10am, it doesnt get turned on again till 6pm, when we watch the news until he has his bath at about 7, and then goes to bed.