Day 128 or “The Day I Try Setting Limits on YouTube”

I wake with my alarm and I just can’t be arsed getting out of bed. I lie, looking at Facebook on my phone, until 6:55 when Stormy comes in. “I wanted to cuddle you” she says. I get about a minute of cuddle before she decides it’s time to start getting ready. She eats her breakfast with some cartoons while I have my shower (which, to be honest, I should have had when I first woke). I am impressed with the ease with which she navigates her tablet. As soon as she can spell there won’t be a single show she can’t find on YouTube Kids.

I return home from work early to play with her. She just want’s to watch YouTube. I think she’s becoming addicted so we discuss setting limits on the device and she mostly agrees. I suspect she won’t be so accommodating when they take effect tomorrow. The rest of the evening goes as usual.

As we’re reading stories before bed, I can’t help but reflect on how amazing a child’s brain is. Everyday she’s learning new things. Her reading is improving very quickly. While she gets bored easily, when she focuses I can get her to read an entire learn-to-read book with only minor help. Even traditional parenting tactics like spelling out words to the other partner are becoming useless. I ask my wife if she’d like to see W.o.n.d.e.r.W.o.m.a.n. when she get’s back to Singapore and Stormy immediately says, “Wonder Woman?”. And she see’s patterns in everything. Even imaginary patterns. She heard the washing machine knocking in the laundry and asked who was cutting up carrots in the kitchen.

I wouldn’t change any of this.

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