Quiet Time, not just for toddlers

Truly, it's not so much for the kids anymore as it is for me.  Without that hour or two of quiet every day Mister Vonkysmeed might come home from work one day to find one or both of the munchkins dangling by their ankles from the pergola over the back patio.  A few years ago Lil' Miss outgrew her naps but I had not outgrown the need for some quiet time for myself and I need it even more since Destructo-boy arrived on the scene.  Even though she wouldn't sleep anymore during naptime, her body still needed the down time of some rest in the middle of the day (or so I told her).  So I stole an idea from my lovely neighbor and instead let her choose a movie out of our rather large children's/family collection of DVD's to watch while relaxing on her bed in her darkened room.  Yes, my munchkins have both a television and a DVD player in their room.  In my defense, there is no cable in there, nor will there ever be while children reside in there; also the components are located on a high shelf so she cannot access them other than to turn the television on and off.  Thus, the tv only gets used for an hour or two of quiet time each day (see, I'm not such a terrible mom, so there ttthhhppptt!).

Right now she is on a Looney Tunes kick, we have a few of their DVD collections and she has chosen one of them every day this week.  At least the kid has good taste, and Mister Vonkysmeed is very pleased as they were originally his DVD's!  It seems to go in cycles, she gets hooked on a movie or a series of movies and watches them multiple times (must get it from her daddy, at last count he had watched The Fifth Element about 65,488 times), I would go crazy doing that!  Last week it was the Ice Age movies that kept getting pulled out, and it was Wallace & Gromit or Shaun the Sheep the week before that.  But lets be honest here, as long as it is at least an hour and half long I really don't care what she chooses (thank gawd I don't allow the purple dinosaur in the house, that I couldn't handle!).

What I love about this arrangement beyond the quiet I get (no Mommy do this, Mommy I need that, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy for a little bit!), is that I get to catch up on tv shows I can't watch with the munchkins, well at least the elder one, around.  After the first time Lil' Miss, at age 2, described an autopsy while asking a question I informed Mister Vonkysmeed there would be no more crime shows on while she was in the room such as our favorites CSI, NCIS, Castle, Lost, or V.  During their quiet time I sometimes even get a chance to lay down for a little bit of a nap myself (gasp!), but usually I'm working on the computer, knitting, cruising the internet or blogging, while the tv is simply providing background noise.  Unfortunately quiet time is always over much too soon with Lil' Miss bounding out of her room asking if she can have her afternoon snack now.  Oh well, there is always her computer time!