I came this close to calling this blog "Put Down the Duckie" because it's a running theme in our house. Except here we say 'put down the book' about 1,000 times a day to our teenager. He reads constantly as an escape from his dismal life of chores and sharing space with his kindergartener twin sisters. The other day, I caught him trying to read while feeding the cat. Um, this doesn't work because you have to look where you are pouring the cat food.
People comment that I'm lucky my son loves to read because so many kids don't read books at all these days. I do think it's great. The problem comes when a kid is reading at the expense of other activities including schoolwork, homework, extracurricular activities and even socializing on the weekends. I realize that there probably aren't a ton of support groups out there for parents like me. But trying to convince him to take a break from reading in order to experience some of the other things life has to offer has been a challenge.
That's why I love the classic Sesame Street song "Put Down the Duckie." Ernie wants to play the saxophone but can't bear to put his rubber duckie down long enough to focus on learning. I was playing this song this morning (geeky mother-of-young-children that I am) to remind myself not to let my own harmless passtimes get in the way of doing other things I want or need to do. I have about 21 possible resolutions for 2011 but I have been searching for a theme. This is it: To be a better role model in 2011, I will put down the duckie and learn to play the saxophone! I'll also try to read a bit less . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment