Coupons and legos.

This week, the boys have no camp. No schedule. But, as I found out over the weekend, they had plans. Oh yes. Plans to play gamecube, watch TV, play addicting games online, listen to itunes. Well, you get the picture. They were planning to plug in. Big time.

Well, I think kids need time to decompress. I don’t mind some vegetation. But all day, every day? I don’t think so. I want them to ride bikes. Play at the playground. Climb trees. Read on the hammock. So Andrew and I devised a plan. We’d make coupons for the number of hours we were willing to let them be wired this week. When the coupons are gone, they’re gone.

They were pissed. We told them the plan before bed last night. You’d have thought we told them that they had to have spinach and liver for breakfast and then clean the toilet with their toothbrushes.

But this morning, all three awoke in good cheer. They went downstairs and didn’t emerge for hours. They created an entire city in Lego.



They told me a whole story about it. They explained every room in detail.

By lunchtime, they still hadn’t thought about the TV. The day was great. They did play a little Gamecube. Reed went on iTunes looking for Johnny Cash. But after dinner, we went to Barnes & Noble to look for some books for our roadtrip to Maine.

I could say that I’m so proud that my boys are realizing that there is more to life than electronic games and airwaves. I could say that the lesson I work so hard to teach got through. And that the boys respect my wishes so much that they chose to scale back their e-fun and get back to basics.

Well, no. I really couldn’t say that. What I could say is that my kids are so freaked out that they’ll run out of e-time that they are hoarding it.

Makes a mama proud.