Monday, April 13, 2009

Lesson Learned


Jada has been really getting into this Dora the Explorer DVD Amy bought for her a year ago. It comes with its own remote control that, when you program it, allows you to answer questions that Dora asks. I absolutely love how Jada will study the choices, point to the right one on the screen, walk back to her seat, and push the right button on the remote. You can see a studiousness, commitment to learning, and self-pride in these actions.

After breakfast yesterday morning, she asked for Dora, and I happily obliged. Since Dora isn't nearly as fun for Aaron, I was going to set him up in the same room with the movie, Cars, on our portable DVD player. (Yes, not only do I let my kids watch TV, but I sometimes let them watch two different things in the same room.) I set up Jada with Dora and then went downstairs to get our portable DVD player from the kitchen.

Of course, no sooner did I make it downstairs than I heard Aaron's familiar wails. As I headed up the stairs, I saw Jada gleefully running towards me with the Cars DVD in her hand, Aaron chasing futilely behind her. I knew what was up: Jada was teasing Aaron by playing keep-away from him.

Accordingly, I lowered the boom. Bye bye, Dora DVD, from the big DVD player, and hello, Cars. Jada assumed that meant she could watch Dora on the portable DVD player. "No, Jada, no Dora for you because you were teasing your brother." I placed Dora high up on a shelf in the close to reinforce the point: no Dora for Jada today.

She was crushed. Whimpering, she said she didn't want to watch Cars with Aaron, and limped to her room. I checked in on her a few minutes later, and she was quietly reading a book. I could tell she was disappointed that she couldn't watch her favorite Dora DVD, but also that she knew she had done a bad thing in teasing Aaron. Lesson learned, however painfully.

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