I’m sure this post will get me plenty of attention with all the haters out there that talk about limiting “screen time”. To them…I say SUCK IT! Unfortunately, my plan to use Netflix to my advantage almost failed me with Bella aka Diablo. Since I had a pretty shitty night on the Engine as detailed in my last post (A Senseless Act), I figured I could get a cat nap in while only Diablo was home with me.
I started off the day with sunglasses on (even inside) while I dropped Diablo off for a half day at school. I felt like I was hit by a Mack Truck due to lack of sleep but figured if I put my head on a pillow Diablo would have been forgotten about for many hours as I got my beauty sleep. I bitch slapped sleep back for a couple of hours by keeping my mind busy on other things. The time snuck up on me so quickly and off I was driving to go and pick her up. As I walked her back to the car, we had the following conversation:
Me: Bella, Daddy had a really bad night last night and I’m super tired.
(Child Psychologist Training – Make it think it is their idea)
You are tired too aren’t you?
Bella: Yes
Me: (Thinking I have won the battle) – Honey, why don’t you and I go home, snuggle and take a nap
Bella: (Looks up at me, purses her lips, rolls her eyes) No!
Feeling defeated I desperately attempted to Figure out my Plan B knowing fully well that she was not gonna cut me any slack. I needed her saying “Yes”. If I could get one…I could get two and so on. All I needed now was a hook but what could it be?? PIZZA! I asked her if she wanted pizza and she responded “yes”. I knew I was on to something. Off to Little Ceasars we went. I asked her if she wanted a cheese pizza and she responded “Yes”. Two for two….I am gonna get that god damn nap now!
We got home had a couple pieces of pizza. At this point, I am pretty wobbly and ready for my narcolepsy to kick in at any moment. My fallback when I do not have gas in the tank is to let them watch something on television. Yeah yeah I could blow smoke up your ass and tell you that I was going to let her watch some show on science or math or some other lie but it would be utter BS. My safety net was Netflix. I asked her if she wanted to watch one of her favorite shows “Sophia” and she responded “No”. Oh damn this is not good. I am crashing and burning. I asked her if she wanted to watch a movie on Netflix (hopefully something 2 hours or longer). Her response “No!”. Oh shit. She is going to ask me to watch her ride her bike or something even more sinister like watch her color a Leprechaun. I did not ask her about these. She turned towards me, slowly walking with her little devil grin and said I wanna watch Plex.
The skyrockets started going off. I think I have a nap coming. For all of you that are not familiar with Plex…It is a program that I set up on a computer to run all movies that I digitized for the girls (in excess of 200) that they get in a very pretty interface. They get to look through all the movies, choose one (tablet, tv, computer) and on demand have a movie that plays without fail. Bella decided it was gonna be a Sky High movie day. I checked and saw that I was gonna get at least an hour and 45 mins before it was over. I asked her if she needed any snacks and she took some pistachios. I started the movie and off to night night I went.
Thankfully, I had set this up for the girls and they are familiar with how it works so they can pretty much run things on their own. Diablo was happy with her movie & I was happy with my sleep. Netflix did fail me this day but Plex took up the slack. Needless to say, screen time to me is important as it gives time to get other things accomplished and you can monitor what is being watched. Do I let them have cart blanche with it? No but I certainly use it to my advantage in getting things done or just getting some shut eye. Hate me….Love me…I don’t care…I got my sleep and everyone benefits from that!