A toy and T.V. free day!

I'm sure my kids think I have completely lost it! This morning as I was on the computer checkin things out the kids decided to come in the office(were they no they aren't allowed) and get into things they shouldn't(paint,patterns,books, files boxes just to name a few) while I was distracted by the computer. I came unglued, I probably could have handle it better but, I didn't, I yelled (which I don't normally do) and got myself all worked up, after I made them clean up there messes they sat in time out for a little bit. While they were in time out I kept thinking to myself "Why is it that they have a ton of toys to play with but they would rather get into things they shouldn't,things that they know are off limits?" Not only do they treat the things they know they shouldn't even be touching badly they seem to do it with everything even there toys, those toys are just thrown off to the side broken and disregarded. So I made a decision(a very unpopular decision), to lock up all of the kids toys and on top of that no T.V.!! They whined and cried and made my decision even more final.

Some of you may be thinking "why did she ban T.V. ?" because after a few tears and tantrums they were over loosing their toys and they started to beg me to put a movie in for them. This made me kinda sad, cause as much as I really don't like admitting it I use the t.v. to entertain my kids so I don't have to! I know that's really bad, but I think that all of us do it to some degree it's so easy to pop in one of there favorite movies to keep them out of the way while I get some work done. Well today as much as I wanted to we had no t.v. all day and ya know it was actually pretty nice, the kids played more with each other and seem to not argue and fight as much and they weren't bugging me every few minutes crying. They even started using their imaginations too, Ryne put her blanket over the top of the fan so that it blew outward and called it her "cave", were she put pillows and blankets and her and Kaleb laid under while Dana read them the first chapter of the first Harry Potter book.I missed that I took Ellie to the Dr. for her 6 month well check.

When I got home from the Dr. office Dana said the kids did really well, and guess what? my house wasn't a complete disaster! So one thing I learned ANGRY MOMMY+NO TOYS=NO MESS I am so pleased about that, and the kids didn't really miss them at all. So I figured wow they may earn their t.v. privilege back.........but they didn't. We had to run some errands I got back from the Dr.'s late enough that we decided that we would get something to eat and then do the rest of our shopping and we figured it would be a special treat because we haven't been eating out hardly at all since Dana and I started loosing weight. So we go to IN-N-OUT Burger, and the kids are running wild, Dana's chasing them while I am trying to order. While Dana was waiting for our order I took the kids to pick out a seat, figuring it will keep them from running all over, boy was I wrong!! It took all I had not to walk out leaving my hubby and our food! Poor Ellie was in the car seat screaming while I was chasing around the other 2 kids.Marryne is usually so good and today she was out of control. I finally put my foot down, I found a high chair and buckled Kaleb in so he couldn't go anywhere and then I told Marryne that if she wanted to watch t.v. or have her toys back she better behave and listen, wow that worked like a charm! After dinner we ran over to Wal-Mart to get some essentials, and boy oh boy those kids were horrible! Marryne was running all over the place in front of peoples carts, then she was trying to push the cart for me but really she was dragging her feet making it difficult for me, while Marryne was doing all of this Kaleb was screaming to get out of the cart and then he figured out how to climb out(he was in the main basket), so then I get another basket so I can strap him down cause that seems to be the only thing that works for him and of course he screamed and whined about it. Luckily for us Ellie was so tired that she went to sleep. After we finally paid for everything and were on our way out to the car, I told my kids that they didn't earn their T.V. or toys for tomorrow, they were both upset but ya know if that's what it takes to get them to respect not only their toys but us as parents than that's what it takes. WHEW!!I am tired just from writing about it!

On the bright side ever since we got home the kids have been angels! As convenient as it is to let the T.V. and toys entertain my children I will opt out on this one. I would rather them play together and use their imaginations then to sit in front of a T.V., they enjoy themselves more and they enjoy me more because I am not the "mean mommy" any more, We play and learn together with just our brains and bodies to guide us and it is so much fun. So I encourage you to turn off the T.V. and play with your kids.