February, in my opinion, is a brutal month. The bleak days were intensified by the looming approach of my partners work trip to India while I was to stay home with our 3 month old and 3.5 year old. In the days leading up to his departure I felt dread. Unable to wrap my mind around the seemingly endless 17 days.

We introduced screen time when our son was 3 years old (there was one exception when my son and I flew to Paris alone just before his 3rd birthday. In the subsequent months he would often say ‘we should go back to Paris so I can watch the IPad’. ‘Sure!’ I’d say, feeling very clever - he seemed to believe shows only existed when on an airplane).

We first instituted a ‘movie night’ on Fridays. But times have changed… at the end of the day in order to get dinner ready, have a minute to chill out by myself, or breastfeed without also having to take notes from my toddler on my (uninspired, in his opinion) 3CPO voice (he also mentioned it was too much  like my Paddington voice, to which I replied incredulously, ‘they are both British!’) So yes, we are blasting through seasons of Tumble Leaf while I am home alone. I try to limit it to 1hr and never two days in a row, but that ideal is not always realized. Only a few months ago this would have shocked me. I am sure I am not the first parent to say; Daniel Tiger saved my life.