In my house, the rules are pretty simple. At least that’s what I thought until my youngest son, Timothy, proved otherwise.
My kids are only allowed to play video games Friday through Sunday-school days are off limits! And every night, Tim heads to bed at 9PM on the dot. He’s allowed to watch TV in his room for a half an hour, and then it’s lights out at 9:30. Simple, right? I thought so too…
During the holidays, I’ll admit-I started relaxing some of our house rules. I let the kids play video games during the week, but only if they didn’t have any homework. And wouldn’t you know it? Suddenly, their teachers stopped handing out assignments! I thought this was a strange coincidence so I decided to investigate. I soon realized that my dear, sweet boys had been lying to me so they could play more video games. The nerve.
Clearly, it was time to rein things in. When the New Year started, the house rules were back in business. My older boys fell in line, but Tim had a harder time getting back into the swing of things. One night I went upstairs and noticed a light on in our guest bathroom. My husband was in bed and the kids were supposed to be asleep, so I knocked on the door.
“Who’s in there?” I said.
“No one,” came my son’s reply.
“What are you doing?”
“Um… nothing?”
As every mother knows, “nothing” is just a code word for “trouble.” I ordered Tim to open the door and there he was, trying to hide a video game under his t-shirt! He lost all his game privileges and his tablet, and I thought that was the end of it.
But a few weeks later, after my husband and I fell asleep, turns out Tim got back up and watched TV in his bedroom…. until 4AM! The next day, his teacher called to tell us that he’d fallen asleep on his desk and snored through an entire math lesson. During a talk later that evening, where I revoked TV privileges and stressed the importance of a good night’s sleep, Tim replied with logic he probably learned while watching television: “But I don’t understand. If sleep is supposed to be so good for the brain, why can’t we do it in school?”
Happy Monday,
Mary
