With two children at home, I’m highly interested in increasing my knowledge of parenting topics.  Specifically, I like to learn more about how to be a great parent and really enjoy my time with my children and family.  I’ve been reading books and blogs on the subject for 5 years now (when the first child was in the belly) and I’d like to begin sharing some of my key learnings and advice on this page.

Recently, we’ve greatly reduced the amount of TV we watch at our house.  We normally let our preschooler watch 1 hour of TV a day and a little more on the weekends – this is actually quite low for American children.  One week, I decided just to keep the TV cabinet closed.  He whined for one morning and one afternoon and that was it.  I just said NO, and he moved on.  There was no discussion involved.  He found something else to do.  We went from watching 2-3 hours a day (as a family) to 2-3 hours a week!

Removing TV from our lives (for the most part), has made our life more simple.  There are less choices in the day and I don’t have to “build in” TV time in my preschooler’s morning routine.  Instead, we sit together at breakfast and I get to hear some of the great thoughts he has in his head.  We have increased those small, special moments during the day that are worth more than gold.  TV had previously filled up our time and not allowed for many of these moments in our life.

Interested in more on this subject?  Check out Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne.