Remember yesterday when I was talking about how I meant to come up with a reading list or math worksheets or SOMETHING to keep Sym occupied this summer, and how she was in NO WAY going to spend the next two and a half months watching Youtube videos in her room? Well in a shocking twist she was watching some Youtube videos when I asked her to clean up the toys & such in the living room and then vacuum. Cleaning up the toys is one of her chores; she has to do it almost every single day. I can’t do it all the time myself because it hurts my back too much (I’m old and frail), and anyway, I had to wash the dishes and do the laundry.
Predictably, she was a huge brat about it. This is literally what was happening:
Sooooo I was like “YEP NOPE THIS ENDS NOW.” I came up with some rules about screen time (which is now limited) and a list of what I call “activities” that she has to complete by certain times or risk losing her screen time. I implemented it right away and I feel like it’s actually working! It’s only been 24 hours but so far Sym hasn’t been arguing about anything, and she’s actually been spending time with me and Gwen instead of holed up in her dank cavern of a bedroom.
She can also come up with other activities that aren’t on the list: this morning she played donut shop with her Sailor Senshi dolls for half an hour, and spent an hour drawing at the kitchen island with me while I worked on etsy orders. Honestly I don’t care WHAT she does as long as it’s not a) staring at the internet all day OR b) complaining she has nothing to do!
Some good stuff that’s been going on…
Gwen’s arm is getting better, the welts are fading and it’s not longer swollen & hot, so I guess it was just a hypersensitivity. PHEW.
I’ve gotten two of my penpal club packages in the mail so far (ty Vivian & Jill!), as well as a bunch of Sad Ghost Club stuff I ordered from etsy. I’m obsessed with Sad Ghost Club, idk why.
SPEAKING OF ETSY, my shop‘s been pretty slow recently but a couple weeks ago it suddenly picked up with tons of views, faves and SALES, yay sales! I figured out that pics of some of my banners were making the rounds on tumblr again, BUT this time the OP included a link to my shop, awesome!
That’s a really good idea for being reasonable about screen time without also having to constantly be a nagging ogre, I like it! Definitely storing that idea for when my kids are older than 4 and 19 months.
Thanks! I’m hoping it will go well, although last night after her screen time elapsed she came out and was like I’M GOING TO BED NOW BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING TO DO (subtext: you are cruel for banishing me from the internet).
Love all the pics and posts. Thanks for the up dates. ox