You Know They're Watching Too Much T.V. When...

LR has been trying to figure out "time" for a while now. Our bragging about his intelligence not withstanding, he just hasn't been getting it. Not that this is surprising from a child who tells me about the petting zoo he was at yesterday when, in reality, it was two months ago. I don't have a problem with that; it's the age. His failures have not kept him from trying, however. And this kind of stick-to-itiveness (would you believe that word is actually in the dictionary?) will certainly serve him well in life. It may not be too much fun for me when he's trying to convince me that chocolate is a perfectly good lunch, but overall it's a good thing.

Now, on what would appear to be an unrelated topic, I know that the television is on far too much in our household, but I didn't realize quite how bad it had gotten. In general, it has never been a problem. LR has never been one of those kids who will just sit in front of the screen and zone out whenever the t.v. is on. Frankly, there have been many, many occasions when I've wished that he was one of those kids, if only for an hour here and there; it would have helped with my sanity (not to mention the cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc.). But for him, it was almost always just background. He'd be playing with his cars, for example, and he'd look up and watch the show for a minute or two and then go right back to his cars for the next ten minutes.

LR has now invented a new use for our television set. You guessed it, telling time. While he remains completely unable to properly read a clock, even our digital ones, he is now able to confidently tell me "Dora the Explorer is on. It's seven o'clock."

I have no clue if I should turn off the t.v. completely, or buy him one for his room.