I think I am becoming a bad mother.  No, I don’t have children, but there is that puppy who appears to be an earlier riser .  She is awake and ready to play as soon as the sun comes up.  We go outside when she asks.  But then I really just want to read the paper.  She wants to play.  I’d rather eat my breakfast.  She wants to play.  I have emails to answer.  She wants to..well you get it.

So I have resorted to opening the sliding door in the breakfast room.  She sits on her “princess pillow” and gazes out beyond the screen at the birds on the feeder, the chipmunks scampering in the grass and the squirrels running around in the trees.  She will sit there enthralled for hours.  

Is this similar to planting a child in front of the TV?  Will she be scarred for life?