July 8, 2010 - I Must Confess...
... we... as parents... ::looks down and shuffles feet:: OK, it's bad.
OK, not bad bad, that would be like letting Georgia fall off my humongous bed. Wait, I did that. OK, it would be liking pushing Georgia off my humongous bed. There, have never and WILL NEVER do that.
But it is something I said I'd never do. I looked at other parents and I thought "for shame." In the time prior to baking our bun in the oven, my hubby and I had conversations about ourselves as future parents, and we said "not us." And during those nine and a half months of baking said bun, that adorable, brilliant bun, I knew what kind of parent I would be. And it was not THIS kind.
It is hard to admit you failed at something, even if it is just an ideal. It is an ideal however, that cuts right to the core of parenting and child-rearing. What kind of parent am I? What kind of child am I going to raise? How will this affect the rest of her life, her intelligence, her ideals, her self-esteem, her health? I mean, I did it as a kid, but that was different. It was me. Don't we all want to do things, some things, different with our own kids?
So I must confess... we allow Georgia to watch Television. Gasp... I KNOW!!!
And not just any TV, but "Baby Einstein" DVDs. Those mass-marketed "baby TV in a can" DVDs that are created just to suck kids in and get them HOOKED! In our defense, it's usually only once a day in the evening (maybe twice if she watches it with me in the morning), and almost never on my weekend. But does that make me feel better? No. My daughter has joined the masses of ever-expanding Americans sitting on their couches, addicted to the TV. And I make my living off of TV, so bashing it is no small deal for me.
Alas, I have failed as a parent in this one arena. Does it make me a bad parent really? No. Does it mean my daughter will be fat and lazy? Of course not. Does it mean I won't extremely limit her TV consumption always? Hell no!
But for a moment, I just needed to wallow in my embarrassment and self-loathing. But I guess I can look on the bright side, I'm raising one more viewer to support my career. Maybe a silver lining?
BTW, did you see that hair in the picture. That's not morning hair, that's Georgia's new everyday hair! Beautiful, and no amount of momma's spit is keeping that do down.
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Oh sweetie! Don't be too hard on yourself. My oldest didn't watch any tv until he was a year old. Then he was quite literally obsessed with the backyardigans. To this day he still sings those songs. I felt guilty, too. But they love it! Their imagination does get stimulated. It is ok. So breathe, you can be THAT parent. I've accepted that, too. Now my youngest is addicted to all things spiderman. I'm okay with that, too. Spiderman just happens to eat peas and say thank you. Or at least that is what Domo thinks so it is incentive for him to do the same. Go figure.
As I said, it is ok. We can limit the shows they watch.