Skip to main content

TV vs imagination and actual play

Image
By
We have a new TV channel in South Africa (ok, maybe it is not new, but we only recently came across it) - the Disney Channel.  Liam loves the programmes, it is so bright and colourful.  His favourites are Little Mermaid, Little Sunshine (a rather cute programme actually called Little Einsteins), Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  Can you tell that he watches WAY too much TV? 

The other day we are playing in the tub - he has a dolphin and a shark and he tells me about a kettle fish.  I ask where he learnt about a kettle fish and he tells me on Little Sunshines. 
When your child starts getting his education from the Disney Channel, you start questioning the hours spent in front of the telly.  Last night Gerhard gets home and Liam is literally glued to the tv. He does not speak, does not eat and we decide this is it, after some terrible tantrums, we simply turn of the tv and tell Liam that normal people chat when they come home from school. 

We start asking each other about our respective days and before long we are hearing tales of Liam's day.  How he was attached by sharks, and how his good dragon actually saved him.  He ate jam sandwiches, flew to the moon, oh what a day.  Gerhard and I obviously cannot keep up with this, although there were some monkeys at my office, some donkeys too...

After all of this making conversation stuff, we played doctor doctor.  Liam is Doctor Liam - I am nurse Niki and I recon the child is suffering from a healthy dose of male chauvinism as Gerhard is Doctor Gerhard...

When it is my turn to be the patient, Liam cuts my hair with the pliers (that is what doctors do silly), he injects me in my eyeball, he listens to the strange noise in my head and double checks for ants in my ears.  We actually had a blast of a time and I realised that kids just want to be entertained, and you can either leave this up to Little Sunshines, or you can play with them. 

Tonight I plan on building castles fit for a princess, telling Liam all about the monkeys at work, all this while I dream of the day that Luka and I can go shopping, I know that she needs a pair of angel wings, a barbie, a my little pony, she especially wants a tinkerbell fairy doll (she told me this last night, three month old babies can talk ok).  I recon Gerhard is probably weeks away from buying Liam a killer set of mechano's or scalextric because that is what three year old boys really need ;)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I had a stunning Louis Vuiton Bag

By
I love handbags, I am crazy about them, I would forgo food for a good handbag.  Everybody has a 'thing' and mine simply happens to be handbags.  Big ones, small ones, madly expensive ones and el cheapos that you get at the flea market, grey ones hand crafted by old ladies at the old age home, shiny metally ones.  I love handbags. Well guess what?  No, not that Guess, not as in the handbag...I now have a diaper bag.  A red one, and it needs to double as my handbag.  There is just no way in hell that I can manage a two (almost three!) year old, a two week old, a diaper bag and a handbag, something had to give and in this case, it was my poor almost new chunky Louis Vuiton bag.  I miss it already... The thing is, when you have a baby, some things are just not meant to be. At least this time around, I have managed to paint my nails (all of them, fingers and toes) twice, and I have worn make up on at least four separate occasions.  With Liam a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hello from Sydney...still feels weird to call his home now

By
We arrived in Sydney without too much drama, kids were generally good on the plane and we even managed to get some much needed sleep.  A twelve hour plane ride followed by a one hour shuttle to our lovely temporary home in Elanora Heights and an extended four hour wait for Gerhard followed, no phone this side as he had to take mine. That meant that I got rather frantic at one stage waiting for him. Safe to say that in typical paranoid Niki state, I actually marched the two kids off to the next door neighbor's house and borrowed a phone... The sun here sets after 8, so we went to Woolworths (where else) last night. Ate dinner at 10, all in bed at midnight. Liam, Luka and I slept like babies, by the grace of some paracetamol for the two smalls and a sleeping tablet for mommy...imagine my surprise when we woke after 8 this morning. So today the fun bit starts, big shopping! Gerhard needs a laptop and printer, we need cellphones, a car, a house, furniture, I was born for this.  ...
Post a Comment
Read more

On the eve of my first protest

By
It is the eve of my first ever protest about anything really.  I am a little scared, a little excited, a little apprehensive but extremely motivated.  For those not following South African politics, our President last week fired our honest Minister of Finance and the South African economy took a tumble and we were downgraded to junk status by ratings agencies. Economic and political uncertainty ensued all because of one man’s greed and corruption.  Junk status has dire implications for our country and as always the people who will be most affected are the poorest of the poor.  Interest rates will rise, so will inflation and food prices, jobs will be lost, the list of horrible things goes on. Ordinary South Africans have now had enough and for the first time ever people from all walks of life are united behind a common cause, to save South Africa.  I have never in my 40 years on this earth been moved by any cause, not enough to actually take...
Post a Comment
Read more