Andrea Danielle
New Member
I have always felt that watching TV had a big affect on my difficult child and I really tried to limit what type of shows he could watch but it has been a struggle as 9 year old easy child puts on shows which difficult child wants to watch so it has been a constant battle. He wasn't watching violent shows but even any sort of "attitude" he was seeing on TV he would immitate. I don't think they were watching more than other kids their age but it still seemed to be too much. I had started a conversation awhile ago about the media and the affect on difficult child's, RFS and SRL had some great thoughts on this.
Well, last weekend we tried something new and announced on Saturday morning that our TV's were broken because of a lightning storm and that it would be awhile before the repair man could come and fix them. (we really just unplugged them)
The boys were very upset at first, for the first few days they moped a bit and kept trying to turn on the TV hoping it would be fixed. Well, it has been a week now of no TV and we are seeing huge improvements in their behaviour, even easy child has improved and he was good to start!
The boys are no longer asking about TV. They are seeking each other out more now to play, last night they were playing musical chairs in our living room and What time is it Mr. Wolf and having a great time. They are also playing with Lego and drawing pictures and just having quiet happy times. difficult child still has his moments and struggles with impulse control and some aggression but it is totally more managable, there has been a huge improvement! He isn't taking any medications right now and his psychiatric wanted him to start on Risperdal today but I have asked that we hold off another week to see where we are headed since the week has been so incredible.
We plan to keep our TVs broken for a few more weeks and when we do "fix" them, I plan to set really strict limits, like maybe only on weekends and only really safe shows.
I am very happy with my experiment so far, some success at last! :warrior:
Has anyone else tried this with their difficult child?
Andrea
Well, last weekend we tried something new and announced on Saturday morning that our TV's were broken because of a lightning storm and that it would be awhile before the repair man could come and fix them. (we really just unplugged them)
The boys were very upset at first, for the first few days they moped a bit and kept trying to turn on the TV hoping it would be fixed. Well, it has been a week now of no TV and we are seeing huge improvements in their behaviour, even easy child has improved and he was good to start!
The boys are no longer asking about TV. They are seeking each other out more now to play, last night they were playing musical chairs in our living room and What time is it Mr. Wolf and having a great time. They are also playing with Lego and drawing pictures and just having quiet happy times. difficult child still has his moments and struggles with impulse control and some aggression but it is totally more managable, there has been a huge improvement! He isn't taking any medications right now and his psychiatric wanted him to start on Risperdal today but I have asked that we hold off another week to see where we are headed since the week has been so incredible.
We plan to keep our TVs broken for a few more weeks and when we do "fix" them, I plan to set really strict limits, like maybe only on weekends and only really safe shows.
I am very happy with my experiment so far, some success at last! :warrior:
Has anyone else tried this with their difficult child?
Andrea