Three going on thirty

It's amazing how when kids reach the age of three, all of a sudden they know a lot more than we do and they are suddenly qualified to debate everything.

James is no different! He has reached three, become a lot calmer than when he was younger but has turned into a king debater. In one afternoon we can debate anything from why he shouldn't have chocolate for supper to how much longer he can watch his Tom & Jerry dvd before having to go to bed.

This is also an age where unfortunately the afternoon nap becomes a HUGE debate. Today was no different of course, because in the car on the way to spend the afternoon with granny and grandpa, James very politely asked if he could watch Tom and Jerry when we got there. I of course very politely replied that he would have to have his afternoon nap first and then he could watch. His reply was that people only need to sleep when it's dark. My reply was that he is still young and so he needs to recharge his batteries by having a nap in the afternoon. He started to giggle and said, 'But I'm not a toy, only toy things have batteries'.

1 - nil to James.

TV or not to be

I was so excited this week when, after a seven year tv drought in our house, Wayne and I finally decided it was time to get satellite tv. I priced it and we were all set to go for installation today.

Our house is situated in a radio shadow and when we moved in seven years ago, the previous owners had taken their satellite dish and left us with an aerial that was so tall, it looked like something out of the fable 'Jack and the beanstalk'. Anyway, we had some tv installers around who all told us the same thing, that they couldn't guarantee the mammoth aerial would give us any reception and we should install satellite tv. It was quite costly back then so we opted against it, cancelled our M-Net subscription and so the tv drought began. Hiring dvd's from Mr Video has become our form of tv entertainment.

Suddenly we had a lot more time in the evenings. We started eating dinner around the dinner table and there was time to read and do a whole host of other things. It's also been great for my boys in that, in the afternoons there's never any rush to get homework done. They're also not sitting for hours every weekend filling their minds with drivel. We get to monitor all they are watching.

However, not having tv also presents some other issues. Whenever you get our crew in front of a tv they go all googly eyed and mouths are hanging open in awe! Needless to say, I also quite enjoy watching the Discovery channel and paging throught the tv guide to see if I can catch a good movie.

The day before yesterday was home fianance budget review day and guess what? We couldn't really afford the installation and the budget was looking tight already excluding the Dstv monthly subscription. Kaboom, there went the satellite tv installation.

In some ways I'm glad because we preserve the status quo but in some ways I'm also disappointed. I was looking forward to watching a F1 grand prix again and the Myth Busters. There would have also been an opportunity to try and teach the guys prudent tv watching.

Oh well, maybe in another seven years?