All About Your Child

My boy isn’t very happy.

Did I scold him? Nope!

Did I beat him? Nope!

Did I punish him? Nope!

Let’s take a closer look……

My easily-prone-to-accident-3-year-old had a fall on the steps yesterday. No, no, no….not the drama type, where he rolls down the steps…no…no…

He missed a step while he was going up the stairs and semi-glided himself down a couple of steps, with his shin hitting against the edges. SUPER OUCH!

The one on the top of the knee is already 3 days old, got it after a fight with Keatkeat.

Now he conveniently uses this particular bruise to remind his big brother of his less-love towards himself. – What a perfect excuse to get his big bro to give-in to him more than usual for the past few days. *Sigh*

To make things worse, he hurt his eyes last night when he was keeping the toys. The edge of a car-transporter hit the bottom of his eye.

It was so close!

Just 2mm away from his eye ball!

If only, if only, it was 2mm nearer! Oh My! I can’t imagine.

Now my boy has an ‘eye bag’ and its red! Yes, it swelled! Ouch!

Bruises like these can really be misleading! ‘Cos when I was at my parents-in-law house today (its sunday, remember?), my MIL thought I ‘abused’ my little Binbin! *Urrrrghhhh*

Despite the school’s effort to educate the kids with talks from the Ministry of Health and by giving colourful stickers like these to the kids with the important tips printed on them, the damage that too much TV-watching is not good for their eyes, still doesn’t register into their mind.

So to make them SEE the truth, this was what I did! I video-ed the cartoon ‘My Friends Tigger & Pooh’ from Playhouse Disney Channel and SHOWED them what their eyes are actually looking at!

They were shocked! They couldn’t believe that their eyes couldn’t see the disturbing waves on the TV screen. After looking at the video shot for more than 5 seconds, they couldn’t stand it and looked away.

Me: Is this nice to look at?
Boys: No.

Me: Are your eyes painful?
Binbin: Yes.
Keatkeat: I’m feeling giddy…

Me: It’s ok to watch cartoons but not for too long, because THIS IS what your eyes are REALLY looking at. Are your eyes important?
Boys: Yes.

Me: So do you want to spoil them and be like Mommy and Ah Yee (my sis) who need to wear spectacles and without spectacles we cannot see?
Boys: No.

Me: So what must you do?
Binbin: Don’t watch cartoon. (that’s what you can expect from a 3year old)
Keatkeat: No! (Eager to correct his brother) Can watch cartoon but watch a little bit.
Binbin: Orh. Can watch little bit.
Keatkeat: So can we watch this now and after this, we switch off the TV?
Me: *Nodded with a Big Smile*

The recording was done almost 1 month ago, I didn’t want to post it till I see that they really understood the message I was sending to their little growing brain. I want to see actions, I want to see improvements to the length of time they spend infront of that rectangular box.

After 1 month of observation, they did change! Now, the longest time spent on cartoons is 1hour in a row, they used to watch non-stop, till I had to interfere, even then, there were bargaining sessions before the electrical box is completely off.

Not anymore now, I no longer need to say, “You have spent hours on the TV and it’s time to switch it off now”. Ever since that video-shot, they switched off the TV by themselves after one or two 30mins cartoon programmes. *Hooray*