Today we spent several hours swimming in my grandma's pool. I had tea and picked apples. My mom came over and brought watermelon. The kids pretended they were babies on floatation devices. They dove to the bottom and clowned around. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
When we came home and before I'd unpacked, the children began begging for TV. There was much whining and evidence that bad attitudes were soon to follow.
I've noticed that my children tend to have melt downs after fun activities are over. They have to come back to reality, to setting the table and entertaining themselves in the same space with the same toys that they've seen all week. Watching TV deadens the pain of the post-fun crash. So does sweets.
They had been on a fun "high" at the pool and now they were coming back to normal things. They were experiencing a downward fall of excitement and happiness. Watching TV numbs them to their sadness. It postpones the mourning, so to speak, of the swimming day's end.
However, TV also takes away my children's ability to handle life. Frequently after turning off the TV, they continue to sit on the couch and stare, totally clueless about what to do next. Often, they fall into bickering and throwing things at each other or me.
So to stop watching TV and re-enter a time of mourning for the swimming day's end is very difficult. I think TV makes the problem worse, causing the children's happiness levels to dive down at a steeper slope than had they not watched TV.
I explained this to them and naturally they smiled at me and extolled my wisdom in this area. Haha. Just kidding. One said she didn't want to be in this family anymore and the other went off to harrass his brother.
Oh well . . . I thought it was a pretty good explanation.
More Big Concepts Broken Down for Kids: All the Injustices Made Right, Reasons Your Student Ought to Behave, Analyzing the Misuse of Authority, Completing the Argument Cycle, Rules for Disagreeing, An Explanation of Authority,
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