ecomum: Television Where do you stand?

Tuesday 3 April 2012

Television Where do you stand?

Too much to have the goggle box on all day? Is Cbeebies really that bad? Can I use it as a bribing tool? Can I just plonk her in front of it while I do stuff like write this? Is that bad??? Am I a bad mother???

Honestly 3 year olds are bonkers, totally bananas. I love The Boss so much it breaks my heart but sometimes we all tire of the constant questions and repetitions of 'mummy, mummy, mummy....' so lets just whack the tv on and hear the silence... The Boss's attention switches to that flickering box in the corner so very easily. For instance this morning, The Boss wanted me to be the 'old sister(ahem) and I can be the Cinderella, lets play that game!'. I'm slouching in my pj's and slippers with a cup of tea and a dozy morning head on. I don't want to play right now. Its just too early. But dear the Boss doesn't understand that..she is on full on play mode from the moment she wakes up till sundown.. So what have I done?? Started talking about how good this Bert and Ernie show is on Channel 5 and she is now lazing on the sofa watching that. Oh. Now the guilt has set in. 'I've stilted her creativity for my own selfish gain', 'I'm a terrible person', 'maybe I should just get dressed and plan a whole morning of games?' And perhaps I should just chill the **** out! Right? Right??

I've grown up with grandparents who don't own a TV. That is a choice on their part but in a way that has put the fear of TV in me. Its peculiar as I worked in TV for years and shouldn't have such a hang up about it, but when you see the visual signs of how it changes your child's creative habits it starts, you know, bugging you. I mean, I love the soaps, The Apprentice, Come Dine with Me and all the other valuable entertainment we are fed but while I was growing up we didn't have a whole channel devoted to 10 minute TV shows just for our age group. What was it we all watched? The Wombles, Mr Benn, The Klangers, Paddington etc.. The BBC or ITV would pop a couple on in the morning and the afternoon to keep the kids happy and the parents happier. I'm not banging on about how our era was so much better and the future is going to hell, it just seems all a bit too much. In this age of multi channel diversity, there are 16 channels purely created for our little ones. Grown adults creating schedules specifically for our children. They have never met our kids but the big guns are building the future generation via Peppa Pig.

I was listening to the marvelous Richard Hawley on BBC 6 Music this morning and he was talking about how everything in the universe is built out of something, everything still exsists but in a different form. Nothing is ever thrown away. The gold we wear is just a substance that was once in outer space and a speck of dust. The stuff we throw away is never actually thrown away, it exists forever. Its all a bit deep and Brian Cox, but hugely important. We have the power to create how our children develop, maybe we should try and be a bit selective in our choices.

x

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Welcome to Ecomum!

Hello!
So, i'm going to be a mother. i can't actually believe i've just written that down. hang on.. i need to read that through.. yep. i'm gonna be a mum. not that this might be very interesting to you. its pretty interesting to me. and the people around me. lots of smiles and tears and shocked faces all round. you see this wasn't a planned person. no. a complete surprise actually. a nice surprise though. when the little pink line came up on the stick.. i mean, the line didn't take 3minutes like the test says. boom, it came up straight away. and i bought the cheapest test you can get. don't believe the hype about getting the best most expensive test for a correct result. if you're pregnant that thing is going to tell you. standard. no messing about. there i was, almost homeless, jobless and penniless with a little person growing inside me... bloody hell. there was no going back on this, no 'choice'. this is how it is. my new life will be as a mum. i'm up for it.

i spent the first few days frantically trawling the internet looking for likeminded people going through a similar experience - to which i never found. so i spent days looking at askbaby.com, newbaby.com, prettybaby.com blah blah blah.. typing in the date of my last period and thinking oh god i've created a saggitarius (theres some history there. i won't go into it). but the whole time thinking that i must be some kind of freak as all the sites i saw seemed to cater to the opposite kind of woman to me. have you seen those sites?? don't get me wrong but its like as soon as women have children they become a pale comparison of their previous self. a parody. a carbon copy - and the fifth carbon copy at that.

it got me thinking. and i thought i'd start up a blog to air my views.. if anyones interested. its for women who love life, like to be green and ethically aware, and have or are having kids. there seems to be some great things out there for dads. that bloke in the sunday times style supplement, hang on let me go get it from the loo... thats it, andrew clover, seems to have fathering off to a tee and he makes it seem pretty funny too. who do us ladies have?? Nigella Lawson, Melanie Sykes, Lisa B. all amazing women but really, really really. what do their lives have in common with ours? they've given birth. tick. they have hormones and have shouted at their friends and partners. tick. they like to be ethically aware. tick. but what we really don't have in common is that they have nannies, pa's, hubbies credit card, beautiful houses, not a money worry in the world. I trawled through the book selection at borders, only to find books by all the above women and many more just like them, trying to give us regular folk advice on bringing up baby. sorry ladies, but i can't and won't be taking advice from you. I want to create my own place. for people like me. people who are living life without a goldcard and with an ethical conscience.

So here it is. Ecomummy. i wanted ecomum but someone else has that name in new zealand, so its ecomummy. its fine. i'm over it.

I'll be posting randomly about life being a pregnant woman, tips on how to cope with it all, whether i find somewhere to live, how to live on a budget and most importantly of all advice from the ecofairies who will be giving their precious knowledge on babies, pregnancy and being green as you go. and other stuff like new bands i'm into.

bye. x