Now before you read on please don’t think that my son sits all day watching CBeebies.  From the jigsaw puzzles, crayons, dinosaur figures and building blocks scattered around my house you can see that he quite clearly doesn’t.  In all honesty the TV is on for my benefit.   It acts as my daily planner and stop-watch so that I keep on schedule with all the mummy tasks that fill my day.   Our channel of choice is CBeebies.  I think Andy Day and Justin Fletcher are absolutely amazing.  My Hubby likes Topsy and Tim’s mum and the Swashbuckle woman for completely non-educational reasons.

Here is how CBeebies helps me stay on track in a typical day:

1. Me Too – Wake up time.  Anything before this is still considered middle of the night.  When this comes on it feels acceptable for my eyes to be open and to be holding a conversation.
2. Show Me Show Me – I need to be downstairs by the time they start saying “ten worms wiggling….” otherwise it will be a rush to fit in breakfast, make his lunch and get us out of the house on time.
3. Postman Pat – Bags packed, cup of tea made (old habits die hard), breakfast served.
4. Dinopaws – Breakfast finished, bowl washed up, tea thrown away, face cleaned, shoes on, coats on, bags in the car.
5. Duggie – If this comes on then we are in trouble.
   1. Because he LOVES it and we will have a screaming fit if I switch it off
   2. We are late
6. Andy’s Wild Adventures – Get dinner served before he gets passed the point of hunger and won’t touch the lovingly prepared nutritionally balanced meal I put together the night before and I am forced to resort to beans on toast.
7. Boj – Time for him to burn off some energy before bath time.  This usually consists of throwing himself on the sofa, the floor, the cat and anything else that just happens to be nearby.
8. Waybuloo – Time for my hubby to take him up for his bath.  Time for me to tidy away everything that has been played with that day, pour a glass of wine and start cooking dinner for the grown-ups.
9. In the Night Garden – When it gets to the part where they do a quick recap of what has happened in that episode it is time to warm up his bedtime bottle as the bath time ritual is coming to a close.  Yes that’s right, I still watch it even though he is no longer in the room.
10. Bedtime-story – Time for the last cuddle of the day as he snuggles in whilst having his night-time bottle.

I only come undone when CBeebies programmers sneakily swap programmes around to try and catch me out.  I tell you all of this because if you ever pop in and find me watching children’s TV with no child in sight, please don’t judge me. There is always some method to my madness!

Love

Harry’s Honest Mummy x

(Disclaimer:  I have no idea whether the CBeebies logo I have used is copywrighted.  If it is then I am very very sorry and will happily remove it).