Not as planned

I thought I would play retro video games and watch old cartoons with Shane.

That has not happened......much.

I have games and shows I want to share with Shane.

However, Shane's electronic time is a break time instead of shared time.

Whenever I put Shane on electronics, I get a breather. He either watches something on the TV, plays the DS, or hops on my computer. When he's on my computer, I have a set of headphones he wears and zones out the world (and talks extra loud to tell you what he's doing).

We have played some games together, but normally I leave Shane on his own. He's so high-energy and attention seeking when he's not hooked up that I use the electronics at the end of the day as my time to decompress.

As for the TV shows, they have to pass Carrie's approval. If she's home (and she's normally home nowadays), she wants a say in what goes on the TV. We have different senses of nostalgia. I've shown Shane some older shows (like Robotech), but they usually get vetoed or turned off after an episode or two. Plus, I don't always want to sit down and watch. I'll do dishes, chores, or hop on the computer for a break.

I get the feeling I had a lot more electronics time than Shane, as well. I can remember a huge variety of shows and games. Shane's Pokemon crazy and has watched hundreds of episodes of that one show (sans commercials and able to fast-forward....he can, watch an episode in 20 minutes vs the 30 minutes it took on live TV), but I don't think that tallies up with my totals at his age.

I want to spend some more time on games together as he gets older, but I like that he's more independent and tries to figure things out for himself before calling for help now.