Television and Naptime

As a general rule, I do not like to sit and watch television.  I can be convinced to watch specific shows, but we don't have cable in our house. Instead, we use Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. At some point, I showed my son one Disney movie. He fell asleep in my lap while we watched. Another day, I decided another Disney movie would be in order. He fell asleep again. Then another time… Then we tried it to distract him when he was tired before his nap, and it worked like a charm. Now, we've gotten in the habit of picking a Disney movie for the day and turning it on when nap time starts. I never wanted my son to get addicted to the television. Yet, when he starts his tired crying before nap time, I am inexorable drawn to the remote.

So, today's choice is Frozen, which we will watch before his ten o'clock nap and again before his afternoon nap. He sits calmly and quietly watches the singing cartoons before falling firmly asleep for a couple hours. Otherwise, I try to rock him to sleep and he squirms out of my arms. At least I have a stack of Disney DVDs, which means I have some variety in the daily rotation. I never thought I would be encouraging my son to watch television, but the screaming doesn't even start when he's offered the distraction when he's tired. Sigh.