Wordless Wednesday #272 - Watching television

(Photos by Dad)

Six habits of highly effective parents #Infographic

This makes a lot of sense!
Source: Early-Childhood-Education-Degrees.com/

Taking control of murder hour

It has been very difficult each afternoon to drive home with a toddler that goes ballistic in the back seat!
I know!
I know!
She's tired and she wants attention and the last 30 minutes strapped in a back seat does not make it any easier...

Reluctant Mom writes much more eloquently about the subject, but we all know what I am talking about.

By the time I reach home, I am ready to commit a murder.
And dying from shame, because my colleague who drives home with me does not have the same discipline strategies...

Yesterday I told her dad to just go and fetch her from the back seat, because I have had my share...

We banned "kindertjies" (children's programmes) for the night, and today it went much better already!

But we are not totally there yet, and there is another ban in place tonight!

It is not such a bad thing, because she has to find other creative ways to keep busy...

Our little girl has become afraid

Something of the scared little face that we see...

Lately we have noticed that we have to watch what is showing on television. We have to keep our fingers on the alt button. Even stuff that we think is not worth mentioning makes our little one afraid.


She sees an ugly face, or a strange creature, sometimes even a “funny” face, and she looks at us with eyes full of fright! I was not even aware of how many strange things are being shown on television. Our days are filled with abnormal apparitions: a devil with red horns, an ugly face on a clay tablet, and a man with tattoos on his face... We are being bombarded with it!

The thing is – as soon as she has seen it, she has seen it. You can’t undo an image in the mind... We will have to be extremely careful from now on!

This is most probably where the stage of being afraid is coming into play. I used to be a very scared little girl myself. I remember being in my bed when I was small; not able to move because of being scared. The teen also used to sleep with a night light, and to this day she does not watch any scary movies. We have a rule: we rather do not look at something when we get the inclination it is going to be scary. We change the stations!

From now on: we will change stations even more quickly!

How do we teach them to not be afraid? Is it possible to do it, or is it a normal phase in development?