Question
I don't know if this is the proper forum for this, but I wanted to thank you for all your work and also share a story with you. I have a seven year old who wakes himself up in the morning for school, makes his bed, brushes his teeth, washes his face and has his back pack on ready to go all without prompting. Typically he tries to hurry me out the door before it's even time to leave. Last couple of days I have been letting him watch TV in the morning. The first day, after having to rush him out the door for lack of being ready and barely making it before the tardy bell, I get a call from him at school asking me to bring his chrome book he forgot at home. Against John's recommendations on his site and my better judgment, I caved and brought it to him. Today, he was not ready again and I had to rush him to get his coat and boots on. We get outside, and I said "where's your backpack?" Unconcerned, he said "I left it in the house." I ran in and got it because I knew he would get snow all over the house. He was late for school by a couple minutes. I reminded him that he wouldn't get that camera at the end of the year for perfect attendance and no tardies and he said, unconcerned again, "oh well, I'll have third, forth, and fifth grade to get it." I don't have to ask your advice on this one because it occurred to me that the only thing we were doing differently was the TV watching. I unwittingly conducted an experiment on the effects of letting your kids watch TV and I got my answer loud and clear! Thank you for all you do!
