TV Zombie !

OK , I confess ! My son , all of two , does watch the television . Now wait , did I say commercial television ? Nah ! None of that (yet !) . But he needs to watch his precious VCD all the time specially during meals . Now I know that it's not a wholesome thing to do . But you know what, he eats well when he's watching Smart Cookie

Long time ago ( actually a few months ago when he 1 and half ) , he was fussing no end to eat stuff . I tried everything - made aloo parathas, gave him a spoon to eat himself , bought him some shiny new books , even let him handle some taboo toys . But he would have none of it . We would have to haul him up on the counter and let him play with the tap water and get in spoonfuls on the sly. And it was hell ! not to mention back breaking. And then I brought out the VCD - Ganesha . It worked wonders . He would sit on the floor at one place and actually let me feed him. He would wait with anticipation for meal times . Unlike earlier where all of us were rolling up sleeves ( including him !) for meal times .And he's learnt a lot from the smart cookie VCD as well. I've been doing itsy bitsy spider ever since he was 5 months old and it was good to see him do the hand movements on cue. But when the kids on the VCD did it, he totally got it and ran to identify every word he heard on the VCD - umbrealla, clock, bread. And I was thrilled because this meant it was not mindless viewing of cartoons or some TV serials that he watched with my in-laws. And I can safely say that the VCDs are here to stay.

And I'd like to know what all of you mothers out there think and do to melt meal time battles. And what you think of television watching ? I could look at statistics and expert opinions . But I want real opinions from real moms . And then I read this article