Tuesday, June 10, 2008

picking up habits ...

I like to think that I set a good example for my children. I tend to be active, polite, a healthy eater, eco-friendly. Overall, I would be quite happy if my children turned out like me (not to toot my own horn or anything).

This is not to say that I am vice-free. I'm not. I can not live without ice cream and I am flat out addicted to television. Luckily, I workout enough to counteract my "bad" habits. And my bad habits really are bad. I have ice cream (a good 2-3 servings) five or six nights a week (and if we kept it in the house, it would be every night). And my television addiction is even worse. I watch at least three hours at night (which is actually more thanks to TiVo), plus however much I take in with the girls during the day. And although I really don't want the girls to pick up these habits, I'm pretty sure (OK, quite positive) that it's already happening. And this is how I know.

On several occasions over the past few days, Dizzle has turned off the TV upon exiting the room. I thought, "Wow! She gets that we turn things off when we are done with them. Way to be green!" Oh, but this is not the case (at least not entirely).

This afternoon, when I took Dizzle to the bathroom, she turned off the TV. I then turned it back on, since Doodle was watching it. Upon doing this, Dizzle yelled, "Turn it back off. I'm going to miss it!"

She wasn't turning off the TV to be eco-friendly. She was doing it because she thought that the show stopped if she turned it off, and would resume when she got back. Like her mother, Dizzle is addicted to television (and she apparently thinks all TV sets have TiVo.)

And since I'm not giving up TV anytime soon, I don't really expect her to either. Now if I could just get her addicted to running ...

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