The value’s in the attempt

As part of Unplug and Play week, which is designed to promote literacy and reduce screen time for children, I decided to take the challenge with my three children.

I am a firm believer in setting limits on the amount of time my children spend in front of Dora or Sesame Street, and while I see the value in educational websites like PBS Kids or the BBC version, I don’t like to see the kids ‘in the zone’ for too long.

Parents know the zone of which I speak. It is where you can barely get your child to listen to a word you say, often having to ask them the same question three times before their attention turns to you.

So to prepare for this column, I started the challenge early knowing it would be beneficial for all of us.

I put up with some initial complaining, but I broke out more puzzles, Play-Doh and involved everyone in baking. We walked the dog and played veterinary hospital while removing snowballs from her coat. We continued the theme by throwing a bed sheet over my kitchen table and doctoring a series of stuffed animal ailments.

I was proud. I was the Martha Stewart of parenting.

And it was good. Until the vomiting started.

I awoke to the sound no parent wants to hear, the retch followed closely by the splat that can only mean one thing: carpet cleaning required.

Now with sick children in need of rest and copious amounts of ginger ale, my ambitions to keep the television off were soon thwarted. Beds were set up on the living room couch along with towels and buckets, and drowsy children spent more time than I care to think about watching Cars and Finding Nemo.

Indeed, over the last few days my kids have probably watched more television than the previous three weeks combined.

I’m sorry literacy committee, I really wanted to report on how my unplug and play efforts were a raving success.

And once this nasty virus is finished, I promise to pick up where we left off. I’m thinking of this nasty episode as the pause button on our goal.

But I want to stress this point. I tried.

As with any lifestyle change, there is value in making the attempt, even if you don’t achieve 100 per cent.

In my mind, my efforts at unplug and play were still a success, because it has made me think twice before saying yes to more TV or computer time. It reminded me that it can be just as easy, and far more rewarding, to set the kids up with some art supplies and have them make me some new decorations for my fridge. And while it may take a little more patience, muffins made with your kids somehow do taste better.

I was somewhat vindicated when my pasty-faced six-year-old didn’t ask for more television. Instead she said to me, “Mommy, when I’m better can we play animal hospital again?”

You bet we will.

Tracy Hughes is the editor of the Salmon Arm Observer