We use TV and computer time sparingly. The trouble is that I don't want DS3 to get much media time--I think he's probably too young for even as much as he gets, so I'm pretty miserly about it. I generally think of it as an emergency measure so that I can get some mental health time rather than a way to get writing time. With all the research and stuff that I have to dig into in order to write, I really need a bigger chunk of more concentrated & less interrupted time than TV would allow. Usually I send the boys outside if I really need a break. I feel like that's a healthier option for all of us!
I'm still considered a newbie in our HS group, I'm sure. We have befriended one family in the group that I can have watch DS6--who's quite independent and easy to watch--for a few minutes while I run DS3 to preschool and come right back, but I haven't asked for any more than that. We have playdates with them, but always with parents there, too. They're the sort who keep their son close at all times, and I sincerely doubt that they'd ever ask me to return the favor of a drop-off playdate. If they did accept a drop-off with just DS6, I'm afraid I'd feel like I was imposing (and thereby harming the friendship) or taking advantage. At this point, it's not worth it to me to risk it.
We have regular playdates with another mom and her kids, but she's a very close friend (so close that I was with her in the delivery room when she had her second child!), and visiting together once a week is important to us both. Plus she has her hands ridiculously full already--she's trying to finish her dissertation on top of HSing *and* being a wife and a mom to a very active 1yo and an 8yo with some 2E issues.
If anyone should be offering to take all the kids, it should really be me offering to take hers!
I think most people would feel that DS3 is too young to be dropped off. And given that he's an extrovert and needs a lot of attention (that DS6 usually is happy to provide for him), dropping off DS6 alone for a playdate wouldn't help me, unless we could arrange something during DS3's preschool time...which is my most productive HSing time with DS6. And even if we could arrange something, it wouldn't be a regular, dependable time for writing.
So, as I said, I'm resigned to putting the book mostly on hold for this school year. <shrug> It's not being dropped, just temporarily shelved, so I'm okay with it, provided I get back to it next year, one way or another. (And that's the reason we're looking into the private gifted school...Just call the gifted school "one way"!
) The sacrifice is not ideal, but it's necessary. But two years of sacrifice at this level is unacceptable to both DH and me. We'll figure something out.
