Just last week I did a post that went on and on about all of the fabulous things there are to do in our town. In the weeks preceding summer vacation I scoured all around, buying up tickets and passes to activities and events in order to make sure that my children weren’t sitting around bored for the next three months. My poor kids weren’t going to have to sit around watching Spongebob reruns all day, neither would they have to succumb to hours of playing Wow Wow Wubbzy games on Nick Jr.com. My children were going to swimming and camps and dance lessons and all kinds of awesome, socializing type stuff.
Why, then, was this the scene in our house this morning:
Me: Come on guys, get your swim suits on and get in the car!(The exclamation point is only showing that I am calling to them while they are downstairs in the computer room. I don’t actually yell at my kids… much.)
Jachin: Hang on, we’re doing a really funny thing on LineRider.
Me: But we have to go now! Do you want to be late?
Jachin: I don’t care.
Paige (my little sister whom I’ve also bought lessons for): Yeah, we don’t care.
Me: Well I care! Now get in the car! (Now the exclamation points are there because I’m a little ticked off.)
So we went to swimming lessons, and they had fun. Then we came back home and they immediately got back on the computer. An hour after that, I was trying to get them into the car, again, so that we could go to the kid matinee over at the Scera park.
Me: Come on guys, get in the car!
Jachin: No!
Paige: Forget it!
Me: What is your deal? Don’t get sassy or we won’t go the movie!
Them: Okay! Great! Come see what we did on LineRider.
Then it hits me: they are happy to sit and do absolutely nothing, rotting their brains, their skin turning pastier by the second. They want to sit in a slackish, vegetative state in front of either the TV or the computer. I told Jachin tonight that he has baseball practice in the morning and he almost cried because he would rather sit in front of the TV and watch Dragon Tails than go play baseball. What is wrong with my children?
I used to play outside when I was a kid! I used to pretend things…with my imagination! I would actually play…with toys. And we would ride our bikes all over town. I remember the one summer my friend and I turned the woods across the street into a “National Park” and we charged the other neighbor kids money to come across the street and behold the natural beauty that we were preserving. We caught salamanders in the creek and showcased them in a special endangered species display. Salamanders are not endangered, and we had to return the neighbor kids’ money, but it was fun! I ask you again, what is wrong with my children? With all children? The next neighbor kid who walks into my house on a perfectly beautiful day and says, “Jachin’s mom, can we play Xbox?” I’m tossing his butt out for the rest of the summer.
My kids are going to get tans this summer. They are going to swim. And play baseball. And have a dance recital. And have Star Wars light saber battles in the backyard with the rebar leftover from construction (not safe, but fun!).
They are going to have FUN, dammit! Even if it makes them freakin’ miserable.
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I feel the same way - kids needs to play! Outside! Luckily, Julia loves to be outside. Then again, she hasn’t been allowed to get on the computer, yet and believes me when I tell her the T.V. won’t work between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Comment by Leslie — June 8, 2007 @ 11:27 am
Funny how we parents are all the same kind of benevolent dictators. I just said these very words yesterday: “No, no more computer. Go away, outside. Run, fly, be free!” My son rolled his eyes and sighed, until I actually chased him out the door into the sunshine. And it was good. But this will exhaust me if I have to repeat it everyday, all summer. Good luck to us!
Comment by stephanie — June 9, 2007 @ 10:10 am