Ahhh, the Term 3 school holidays. Full of the promise of daylight saving, spring in full effect, summer around the corner…………the reality is often drizzle, cloud and southerlies with a touch of rain.
Pessimist? Never. Realist and Auckland native? Ahhhyes.
The dynamic between my two boys is constantly changing. With an 8.5 year age gap Ethan has quickly moved past the “he’s soooo cute, let me carry him everywhere and kiss him ’til he giggles” phase and we are firmly entrenched in the battlezone that is “HELP, he’s biting / scratching / hitting / pulling my hair / breaking my stuff! Poor Ethan.
Poor ME!
Nixie is embracing stereotypical two year old behaviour with all of the gusto of a bingeing P addict. He is voracious and methodical in his destruction, his love of climbing, tumbling, wrestling and tackling (the joys of an older rugby-playing brother lol) knows no limits that we have yet discovered. I love it, his energy is infectious but he does require monitored downtime to regroup before his over-tired alter-ego comes out to wreck havoc play.
I feel very thankful to be at a place in my parenting journey where I can poo-poo the perfect mummy model and freely admit that Nixon and Ethan watch TV. Every day. Multiple times if the need arises. OMG!! I said it. Now shoot me.
As such, I’m keeping an ace up my sleeve to whip out over the holidays – NEON, I welcome you and your sweet programming onto our devices!
To be honest my (poor) kids are a bit starved when it comes to their Disney intake, not intentionally, I just really, really dislike DVD storage, clutter and the inevitable heartbreak and expense when Nix slams them in the Xbox tray and they are destroyed. This is only one of the reasons why I LOVE a good digital subscription service like NEON. No messy cases and pesky disks to inventory, plus, wonderful family movies and shows that all live ‘up there’ in the ‘cloud’ or something. All I know is the when I hit Airplay on the iPad we are in Disney heaven!
To make sure I’m ready for when the first meltdown of the holiday times itself perfectly with me making a Croquembouche or something (HA!), I’ve already made a Watchlist of 30 shows and movies so I’m not scrambling at tanty-time;
I picture our NEON time playing out in one of two ways;
- It’s gloomy outside, the fire is on, everyone’s happy. I’m snuggled on the couch under my handmade crochet blanket, Ethan on one side, Nixie on the other, everyone’s excited as I introduce my kids to some Classic Disney movies such as Cinderella, Dumbo, Lilo & Stitch………there’s probably popcorn and lots of giggling.
- Ethan’s yelling because his two year old brother bit him, Nixon’s roaring like a lion and chasing Ethan around the couch, I’m screaming “WHERE”S THE IPAD???”, find iPad, throw it at kids screaming “find the new app, and watch ALL the shows!” whilst running to the bathroom and locking the door so I can rock back and forth in peace.
Either way, the kids end up happy and so do I – provided I can get out of the bathroom as someone’s probably jammed Play-Doh in the lock again.
While I’m in self-imposed Mummy Time Out I’ll probably knock back a couple of shows myself, because I can watch NEON on my phone people! I’m thinking Girls (I’m ashamed to say I’ve not seen one episode yet!), Game of Thrones (we’ve only seen Series 1) and The Real Housewives of Melbourne (can you imagine an Aussie version of this show? I die). There’s new shows and movies becoming available all the time so binge-watchers exhale, it will be ok, OK?
You can get your own holiday contingency plan sorted quick-smart, just sign up for a 30 day free trial at neontv.co.nz and start streaming now.
To make your holidays that much sweeter, NEON and The Best Nest are giving you the chance to win a $100 Prezzy Card that you can spend wherever you want! Enter via the widget below. Competition closes Sunday October 4th at 12am.