Please Watch TV And Eat Junk Food!

Image by MikeOliveri via Flickr

Oh, the irony …

I’ve been going through a transition in my life and at times, it has been pretty exhausting and last week was one of those times. And it shone a light of irony on perhaps one of the very few “down sides” to unschooling that I can think of.

I practise whole life unschooling and, for me, it needs practise every day as I heal away from my authoritarian childhood and surrender to the flow, love and respect available in the moment. So that means my children have choice … and discussions and guidance about their choices, but they do have the final say about what goes into their bodies, when their bodies need rest, what they want to do with their time and what they want to watch on TV, just as I do.

Anyway, last week, for a variety of reasons I was a little low on sleep leading to being a bit low in energy during the day, especially towards the early evening.

That’s when I encountered the first down side:

Do you want to watch some TV?
No? Maybe there’s something good on kid’s TV?
No? No TV? Nothing on TV you want to watch? Really? No TV. OK.

Now there’s a conversation I don’t tend to hear parents, in general, repeating at groups or in the shops or on discussion boards!

The second “down side” came after I’d gone shopping. I was super tired and hungry (yes, I know not a winning combination for going food shopping, but at least I didn’t throw myself on the floor, thrashing and crying, so I thought it went OK). I thought I’d be “resourceful” and pick up a few convenience foods that I could pop into the oven over the next few days because we usually cook from scratch or eat snack plates (like Sandra Dodd’s monkey platters) and I just wanted something a bit easier.

My children turned down the pizza, gourmet pies and oven chips but wolfed down the steamed vegetables and rice with a bit of tamari that had to be made as a replacement.

It really did make me laugh, in a tired, ironic but kinda pleased way.

It’s not as if they don’t love TV or junk food now and then; I know I do. It’s more that, I was finally given some external measure that choosing unschooling is truly bringing about the kind of freedom that I hope to live by and that my children will take as the norm.

That things that were meted out or withheld in some erratic rewards and punishment system when I was growing up, giving them an extrinsic value out of proportion to their intrinsic value, don’t have any hold over anyone in my household. They’re just another choice amongst many.

I call them “down sides”, but of course, I really see them as a great reflection and affirmation of my parenting and lifestyle choices. Though I sure could have done with the break I thought TV and junk food was about to provide … onto Plan B … hmmm …