Jennifer Rose: Babysitter in Love

So tonight Adelaide got to have a little screen time after dinner while I was doing the dishes. She has spent enough time on the internet to have a few sites she likes, and lately it's been some fun one with math puzzles and games that require some very basic physics. I came in to check on her after a few minutes and discovered that she was on a site claiming to be "Girl Games," and she was on the game Jennifer Rose: Babysitter in Love.

As you can imagine, this immediately looked like a bad idea to me. Here is the written description from the site:

Jennifer Rose: Babysitter in Love - Jenny Rose loves children very much and she works as a babysitter now. Your task is to help Jenny to take care about kids, satisfy their wishes and needs, also you need to give some time to Jennifer's boyfriend who comes to visit her with flowers. But don't forget about the children while flirting with the boyfriend. To start the game you need take the kid from the door, sit the child down on the carpet on free space, wait for the child's wishes and give the kids what they want. Use upgrades to buy new clothes, shoes and toys to increase children patience. And don't forget about the boyfriend. Jenny have to flirt with him when he comes. You've got only 5 lives for the whole game.

Um, not sure I want my child learning she "have to flirt" with the boyfriend when he comes. Nor that she should be buying new clothes, shoes and toys to "increase children patience." But when I asked her where she found out about this site, she got a bit evasive and I decided I'd be better off just sitting with her and watching the game instead of making it all the more appealing by immediately shutting it down. As I watched, I saw that the appeal for her was moving the babysitter around and getting the kids changed, put to bed, and fed, and that she didn't seem to view the boyfriend at the door as anything more than another task to get to in time before she lost points. So I let her play and I assume she will lose interest when there's not more to it. I'm glad that her natural inkling is to play things that hold her interest by challenging her problem-solving skills, but I suspect that as she spends time with other kids who are online without a parent's critical eye there will be more websites she knows about that I would prefer she didn't. It's not too soon to be putting things in place to try to help her navigate through all the crap she is going to encounter out there.

Evening conversation

A: Mom, next year I'm going to be Pippi Longstocking for Halloween.

C: That's a good idea.

A: And you know that monkey she has?

C: Uh-huh?

A: I'll be Pippi, and you can be the monkey.

So far, it's working

10 on the 10th

9:00 am

12:00 pm

12:10 pm

2 pm

5 pm

5:30 pm

7:30 pm

8 pm

8:15 pm

8:30 pm

Found

Bedtime Story

Torn between a hot water bottle and snuggling the cat in bed tonight, Adelaide chose both. Miss P was surprisingly attentive as Adelaide read her a bedtime story about penguins. She does love a good cozy snuggle.

Bedtime Conversation

A: Mom, what does "melodramatic" mean?

C: It means overly dramatic.

A: What does "overly dramatic mean?"

C: Oh, someone who is melodramatic might make a big deal out of a little thing. Like get really emotional, or talk like this (proceeds to use a melodramatic voice to demonstrate).

A: Okay, thanks. It was in one of my books and I was wondering what it meant.

C: You're welcome.

Self-congratulatory parenting moment: I did not use the very handy example of this morning, when Adelaide's blouse was not looking the way she wanted it to, and she spent 45 minutes crying, complaining, declaring it to be a terrible day, and generally making life miserable for both of us. I will leave her to do her own thinking on that one.