When Shane likes something, he loves it with a burning passion that tells him he must have it and he must have it now. Airplanes, balloons, horses, school buses, trains, TV, garbage trucks, tags on pillows/clothes, Indy, Nana, Pop-Pop, Grandpa, strawbabies, Mommy, "black car,"..... Shane has a lot of loves.
Nothing trumps the iPad.
I left it out last night.
This morning, Shane spotted it.
It's been two days since he's touched the holy grail of electronics. Shane went from being hungry and saying "bottle, bottle!" to "IPAD!!!!"
I winced.
I decided to let the iPad distract Shane while I made his morning bottle. The boy knows the apps he likes and how to get into them. He can't type, so his access to areas where no little boy should wander is limited (but not totally gone....oh, the internet). Besides, it only takes me a minute to pour, warm, and deliver a bottle.
"GARBAGE TRUCKS!" Shane clutched the iPad in shaking hands. He drooled with excitement.
"Here's your bottle, Shane." I said.
"No, bottle." Shane shook his head. He held the iPad up to me, "Garbage trucks?"
Shane would rather skip a meal than put down the iPad. That's the definition of addiction, isn't it? I took the iPad away and hunger returned. Shane took the bottle and chugged.
He never forgot about the iPad, though. He asked about it every 10 to 15 minutes to make sure it was okay. "iPad please?"
Shane and I payed for an hour and then we went upstairs to crawl on Mommy. Shane wallowing on her is Carrie's preferred method of waking up. The next hour was spent running around upstairs, climbing up Mommy and Daddy's bed, and pulling all the books off the shelves that had a horse on the cover.
We made our way back downstairs (eventually) and I decided to let Shane use the iPad some while Carrie made her breakfast. Shane went straight to YouTube. We watched the first 5-30 seconds of many a garbage truck and school bus video. Shane has my attention span cut in half (if you cut something that's already really short in half...you get something really really short).
Half an hour passed. Carrie finished her coffee and toast. My stomach rumbled and signaled it was my turn. I turned off the iPad and Shane blew a gasket. He's vocal when things don't go his way, but to take away his iPad? How will life go on?
Shane arched his back and threw himself on the ground. He cried! He hit! He didn't get his iPad back (the little _____). Carrie and I left the room after it was clear Shane didn't want to calm down. He stopped flailing after about 10 seconds and came to find us, but he didn't cheer up for another 5-10 minutes. The boy is that addicted. The iPad was safely hidden from view in that time.
It will be a few days (or a very tired and sick parent on solo duty) until Shane sees the iPad again. Discipline is one of the least fun aspects of parenting, but it happens. The main rule I follow is to stay calm and not give in.
Nana always says I was obsessed with my favorite toys and TV shows as a kid, so I suppose Shane gets it from me.
Still, I would rather have a boy with strong interests (and a strong will) than one who is ambivalent to life.
PS - You can fill in the blank. It was really hard to pass up on a rhyme!
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