Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Surrogate Parenting

This picture is almost like a game of Where's Waldo. Can you see the child? There, in the middle. Squint past the disaster she's made of her room. She's got short dark hair. . . can you find her? Ah-ha! And a close-up. There she is, reading a book. How precious is that? But wait. . . is that a CD player at her side?
How do we feel about books on tape/CD? Obviously, it's not as good as actually reading to your child (if by good, we mean an activity that both stimulates the brain and creates feelings of love and bonding between the parties involved, but not so much an activity that saves a mother's sanity), but is it better than, say, a movie? Or a computer game? I sent Livi to quiet time today with a pile of audio picture books that we had borrowed from the library and showed her how to work my CD player. It bought me quite a bit more actual quiet than quiet time usually affords, but I had this little corner of guilt that I was using yet another electronic babysitter.
If I promise to make sure we still read books every night before bed, can I count this as an option better than a cartoon?

3 comments:

dockters said...

Definitely better than a cartoon!! I'm going to start teaching Sam how to work a CD player tonight!! :)

Kate said...

I think it's a brilliant idea... and I think I'm going to copy you. My boys watch way too much TV.

I love seeing photos of your girls. Livi's haircut is SO super cute. And Mimi is so grown up... yet she still looks exactly like I remember her. They're both so pretty.

With all three of my pregnancies, if we had a girl... her name was going to be Naomi. When we finally got our girl, we called her Naomi in utero and even the first two days in the hospital. But we obviously changed our minds and went with Paige. Your Naomi is the only one I had ever known of (and still is!). ANYWAY... long enough comment.... I just haven't talked to you in quite a while. Glad you have a blog!

Bean said...

Emilee I'm much worse than that even. I get DVDs of books being read and count that as okay. Hey, a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do...