Single parenting

I was a single mom for over 2 years. In that time I was fanatical about no screen time before my daughter turned 2. Later I made sure the living room was set up so the television was tucked in the corner and not the focus of the room. And then I went back to school to finish my college degree and the TV got used more and more as a babysitter. My parenting partner now is the kind of person who likes the tv on all the time just for background noise. Most nights he falls asleep on the couch watching TV and our toddler daughter is right out there with him dozing on his chest. I get on to him about how bad it is for her all the time.

He's been gone for 3 days now working a job on the next state over. Day one the oldest had no screen time but the youngest watches leapfrog Numberland while I attempted to get laundry folded and put away. Day 2 we went to the theater and saw The Croods. Today the oldest came bounding in an hour and a half before the alarm was set to go off and I groggily told her she could watch something if she wanted so a couple of episodes of My Little Pony got watched before school.

Food on my own hasn't been any better. Yesterday I got the kids chicken stars meals with french fries... For breakfast. Tonight's dinner includes the same whole wheat penne noodles we had with artichokes Monday and celery last night. Tonight they were served with boil in a bag mataar paneer and bananas.