Parental Control
We have been disturbed about the charm that the Television holds over kids, more so over our daughter. Once the television is turned on, her perception of everyone else is turned off. You can say anything you like to her and she is likely to be transfixed watching the latest advertisement and totally oblivious to you and your rising anger.
What started as a welcome distraction in the beginning suddenly became an unmanageable demon. Soon she learnt the names and times of the cartoons she wants to watch and how to tune in to her favourite channels. When I wanted her to start eating by herself, I used it as a bait, told her that she could watch cartoons only if she ate by herself rather than the maid or myself feeding her.She rose to the occasion and ate whatever was placed in front of her. The only catch was someone had to rouse her from her reverie and continually ask her to take the next bite, pick up the next morsel. There was no respite even during the commercial breaks much to my chagrin.
Now I had to think of something new to get rid of this habit and I told her that she could watch TV only 'after' she finished her lunch. But I got to know from my mother-in-law and the maid that
she would just not budge off the sofa after that and watch one cartoon after the other the whole afternoon. I used to call up home to check if she was watching TV.
But yesterday was the final straw. I called up to check and she refused to take my call. She knew I would ask her to shut off the TV. Finally yesterday we enforced the 'Parental Control' option on Tata Sky and locked the cartoon channels with a PIN. She couldn't tune into those anymore.
Today when I left her in the afternoon, she was throwing a tantrum, about what will she do. She even told me that now she won't be able to watch the science channels .. as if that was the most important thing she was missing. Finally at 4:00pm I called up to check what she was doing and how was she handling her 'withdrawal symptoms'.
She seemed pretty cool and collected.I asked her what was she doing ?
She said she was watching a cartoon DVD. When will we learn to think ahead of our children ?
What started as a welcome distraction in the beginning suddenly became an unmanageable demon. Soon she learnt the names and times of the cartoons she wants to watch and how to tune in to her favourite channels. When I wanted her to start eating by herself, I used it as a bait, told her that she could watch cartoons only if she ate by herself rather than the maid or myself feeding her.She rose to the occasion and ate whatever was placed in front of her. The only catch was someone had to rouse her from her reverie and continually ask her to take the next bite, pick up the next morsel. There was no respite even during the commercial breaks much to my chagrin.
Now I had to think of something new to get rid of this habit and I told her that she could watch TV only 'after' she finished her lunch. But I got to know from my mother-in-law and the maid that
she would just not budge off the sofa after that and watch one cartoon after the other the whole afternoon. I used to call up home to check if she was watching TV.
But yesterday was the final straw. I called up to check and she refused to take my call. She knew I would ask her to shut off the TV. Finally yesterday we enforced the 'Parental Control' option on Tata Sky and locked the cartoon channels with a PIN. She couldn't tune into those anymore.
Today when I left her in the afternoon, she was throwing a tantrum, about what will she do. She even told me that now she won't be able to watch the science channels .. as if that was the most important thing she was missing. Finally at 4:00pm I called up to check what she was doing and how was she handling her 'withdrawal symptoms'.
She seemed pretty cool and collected.I asked her what was she doing ?
She said she was watching a cartoon DVD. When will we learn to think ahead of our children ?
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