Katelynn's incessant begging for television has gotten out of hand lately, and I must admit that it is all too easy to use the TV as a babysitter, particularly on days when I am trying to get a lot of chores done around the house. I read some tips in a family magazine about the topic and modified their ideas in order to help us both with discipline. This morning, I gave Katelynn a little wooden box and put 5 black rocks inside. I told her that she could decide when she wanted to watch TV, but she had to give mommy a rock each time she watched a show. I spent quite awhile attempting to explain that once the rocks were gone, there would be no more TV that entire day and she would not get more rocks until the next morning.
Katelynn chose to use all her rocks up before 11:30 am... I guess that should not be a surprise with a 3-year old. By late afternoon, she was begging for "more rocks" and there were a couple of tearful mini-meltdowns. However, I held firm and she did not have any TV once the rocks were gone. We had a very pleasant evening of reading books and playing games together. In the future I may need to help her "ration" her rocks a bit....after all she is only 3 years old. But this looks like a good long-term solution to the TV problem!
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