A funny thing happened yesterday. For a couple of months, Dylan has wanted to watch a few shows on PBS every weekday morning. It was something that we started in the middle of winter, when it was too cold to go out and play until around lunch time. As the weather warmed up over the past couple of weeks, I started to fear that perhaps Dylan’s morning TV time would cut into his outdoor play time. While I think that the shows that he enjoys are of good quality, I don’t necessarily like the idea of him sitting there watching television for an hour and a half every day if it is nice outside.
Yesterday and today were different, though, and something interesting happened with no prompting from me whatsoever. Yesterday morning, Dylan did not ask me to turn the television on while I made his breakfast. As soon as he was done eating, he put his shoes on and went outside. Today, the same thing happened. I could barely get him to stay in long enough to eat his breakfast before he went out into the yard.
I hope that this trend continues, because I love being outside with the boys as much as possible. It’s great to know that there are good shows on television, but I prefer that we watch them on days when we can’t really be outside that much because of the weather. It is just so interesting that I did not have to say a single word to Dylan in order for him to stop watching television in the morning and go outside instead. In fact, I think that if I had suggested that he go outside instead of watching television, he might have asked to watch television. I am relieved that at least for now, the television is one area where I do not have to try to set boundaries and rules.
Photo by Breda on morguefile.com.