My friend in Merida, Ellen, has either coined a cunning term, Obamamos, or heard it somewhere else, but it is absolutely perfect and I LOVE it!
We (obviously) listened to the events today. We don’t have TV but we can get photos over the internet (no streaming video though) and have satellite radio, so between NPR’s coverage and the photos at cbsnews.com, we missed very little. But life is strange. When we listen to the radio I always put on the only station we have reception for (yeah, we’re a bit more than a bit off the grid down here) is from Cozumel, Sol Estereo. We connected the Sirius to the car radio and headed into town listening to the end of the coverage. Ellen, confused, asked, “Is Obama in Cozumel? Can we go see him?” Maybe you had to be there…
A few days ago (five?) we had an impromptu family meeting and I expressed my dismay that the kids are generally gone from our palapa all day and pretty much of the night before returning for either DVDs or computer time. We never really have the chance to interact and just *be* together anymore. I asked them if they’d be willing to go a month without DVDs or computer. No Way! But they did agree to 2 weeks. So we planned for 2 weeks without the computer or DVDs starting the next day.
And then we found that all our Spanish language instruction is on the computer. And Pike wanted to ask a neighbor currently in Canada to bring him Legos. And our daily Writer’s Almanac comes via email. And I needed to figure out how to care for and rehab my calf injury. So we decided that it would be ok to use the computer for research and email. Then Jesse decided that since he never reads email (his choice) he’d use that time for Facebook. And then the other night when I was showing Pike some logic games I’d found for him, the other 3 so enjoyed the games that we soon found all 4 sitting on their computers playing the games.
But it was still an excellent experiment because it really showed us how much family time we’d been missing. We all spent Saturday night listening to Prarie Home together. The boys are no longer staying up until 3am or later and enjoy getting up earlier in the day. Ellen and Pike are playing chess as I type this up. We’ve started reading so much more (one thing I really wanted to concentrate on) and enjoying our time together. So it was a wonderful experiment and showed us how much we’ve been missing out. We now just need to figure out how to find an happy medium with computer time and movie time.
Ah yes. Computer and TV are time suckers. Our great experiment turned into a permanent arrangement and it has been a huge blessing for our family.
I will post about it in a few days, but the short story is they use the Wii, and we got them each a Gameboy DS. The Wii is in the den, and everyone usually joins in one way or another, whether it is watching or participating. I love the Wii.
The DS’s basically replaced the computer, but the kids have pretty much self regulated themselves on those (after marathon gaming after they got them) and now usually only play them when they want some alone time or when we are on a longer drive in the car. So, maybe an hour a day at most?
T.V. is fairly minimal. Maybe an hour in the evening, usually something we all watch…..usually Man vs Wild or some other Discovery show.
The computer is gathering dust under my bed, and when they need to use one to look something up etc, they use mine. The habit took about 2 weeks to break (painful), but now they really don’t miss it at all. I certainly don’t.
I’ve heard the Obamamos ever since the primaries – so I think she heard it somewhere. TV and computer time is always a challenge – not just for the kids but for us adults as well. Time suckers sometimes.
I think it’s “ObamaNOS”…but I kind of like “ObamaMOS”… verb vs. noun?
YEP, it’s ObamaNos… like Let’s Obama! or something along those lines…