It comes every day and each day I am equally unprepared. That witching hour from 4 to 5 pm when my kids are unusually energetic and I, on the other hand, have little left to offer them – or anyone else . In the mornings (after two large cups of coffee), I am an eager, enthusiastic mother, planning fun activities and reveling in the adorable antics of my two toddlers. By the afternoon, I’m somewhat wearied, but still loving and attentive (with the assistance of more caffeine in the form of good strong tea). After 4 pm however, I’m not a nice person. My previously charming children have now morphed into demonic creatures whose every shriek pierces my sanity. Their dual voices merge into one symphonic whine that drones on and on and on….
How do I cope? This is where I pay homage to the godsend that is the Treehouse Channel: Dora, Bob, Max & Ruby, these are my dinner-time friends and it’s to them I turn in desperate times. Before I had kids, I had noble intentions of curtailing my children’s television watching. I had visions of two immaculate toddlers playing imaginatively while Mozart played softly in the background. Fast forward to 2007: morning cheerios and afternoon peanut butter adorn my once-lovely espresso hardwood; two manic toddlers intermittently hit each other and disperse the contents of three toyboxes so that every inch of the food-adorned hardwood is also covered in small, annoying toy-things. Haggard and on-the-verge-of-weepy me wearily prepares a minimalist dinner which the giddy toddlers will no doubt reject and abandon. As I place dinner on the table, Dora, my dinner-time angel, smiles knowingly at me from the TV screen. With her adventurous spark, I know she will step in and take control. Her smile reassures me as my little ones nibble their meal and start to unwind in our first step toward bedtime.
I’m a TV junkie and I’m afraid my 3 year old is following in my footsteps. Treehouse really is my saviour! How else would we cook, clean, or just rest for a moment? Thank you Treehouse!!!
I hear ya! I swore up and down that my daughter would NOT watch tv at ALL when she was young (like before the age of 2), but reality hit when my hubby broke his ankle last year and tv became just about a necessity and I realized that sometimes you are just in need of that distraction for your child and for you too!
I. HEART. DORA!!!!!!! And, Treehouse in general. HEART!!!!!
We love spongebob! I think my husband has a secret obsesion with him 😉 We also depend on my little pony, max and ruby, and backyardigans! Now I don’t feel so bad. I’m not the only one!
Sad, but true. We count on Dora, Diego and our new faves “Wonder Pets”, to get us through that witching hour. Luckliy the one that is getting a little bored with Treehouse is also the best at entertaining herself and not contributing to the chaos.
ah…i have to separate my kids. emily watches family in my bedroom while joshie sits and watches a movie in the family room. it seems to work for me. mostly.
Ah! SBSP! LOVE! Yes, in our house one kid is also far, far too mature for Dora, which, I’m informed daily, is for babies. But Spongie…he’s loved by all four of us, grownups included! It’s amazing to me how many people have an unfair impression of that lovely little guy, when they’ve never even watched the show. SpongeBob embodies everything I want my kids seeing on tv: he’s kind, generous, naive, hard-working and unfailingly optimistic. If you can handle the odd bit of potty humour and burp jokes (let’s face it – we ALL laugh at that stuff), it’s well worth the watch. Get down to bikini bottom, moms of the world!
Ahh yes, Amreen…the witching hour. TV used to work for me but now the 3.5+ years that separate my son and daughter in age means Dora works for one while SportsNet works for the other…however, sometimes SpongeBob can be called upon as a compromise. I love that little, square sponge.