Oh, Bruiser-Bear. There are times when all he wants to do is sit in our laps, snuggle, and read "Hop on Pop", "Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel", or "Ten Apples Up On Top"... and then that brief moment passes, and it's back to "Bunbamb? Bunbamb?"
If I never see another episode of SpongeBob, it will still be too soon. Even armed with this vehement belief, I was still in for more of a shock this weekend.
After spending some time at a friend's house for a playdate, I had one of those "Mommy a-HA!" moments where the earth slows down, things become clear, and the guilt of thousands upon thousands of moms everywhere come crashing down upon my very soul:
Our son will not learn to read just by sitting on our laps during some (increasingly sporadic) story times. Actual effort will need to be put into this feat.
Me? I'm okay with that.
Man-Mate? I'm fairly certain he shed a tear (or twelve) when I said that SpongeBob has got to be severely reduced.
Luckily, our friend showed us this amazing website that she had just started showing to her son - StarFall.com. There's a section entirely devoted to the alphabet, and learning it phonetically... something that I could feasibly see myself doing with our little Dookie Doo! (See picture) My friend's son, a month younger than ours, was already pointing at the letters of the alphabet, saying what they were, and really getting it!
Anyway, this moment of Mom-Terror was fairly short lived. As with anything, both Man-Mate and I feel that it's best to have things in moderation. Yes, it's okay if the Little Dictator watches SpongeBob... but not nearly as much as he had been before. Yes, it's okay that he's not reading Dickens or Shakespeare at 22 months... but he's going to start prepping for it...!
Oh, the joys.
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