When my husband and I decided to have children, we always told others that we would not have tablets or electronics that held our child’s attention. We wanted them exploring and playing and being engaged. Fast forward to when our son became old enough to be intrigued with electronics, we fell into that habit of allowing television and tablet to hold his attention. It led to a television in his room, and he was allowed 30 minutes of TV at bedtime with the sleep timer set for the TV to go off. Those 30 minutes turned into 45 minutes and from there turned into an hour. He was not sleeping well and was also getting up through the night and finding the remote control to turn his TV back on. We knew this was a problem that we created and not only was this a problem for our son, but soon it became one for our daughter as well as she was getting older.
We made the decision to remove the TV from their bedrooms and started doing story time with them before bed. This was something that I always remember by Mamaw and Aunt Rosie doing for me and my sister growing up when we spent the night with one of them. When the TVs came out, it was so devastating to them, but how quickly they bounced back after a couple nights of bedtime stories with both of their papas!
Not only was this good for them, but it is also very fulfilling for us as parents. There is nothing like getting a good cuddle with your child and reading about lessons and adventures before they lay down to rest their little bodies for the night!
These precious moments are moments that we will never get back and I am so happy that we learned that sooner, rather than later. One important thing to remember is that the great thing about being human is to always learn a lesson and be able to make a positive change from that lesson, no matter what your age!
