We have a firm rule in our house--well, it's "mom's" rule actually, though Jon thinks it's a good idea. Namely, absolutely no movies, television or video games except on Saturday. The exception to the rule is when someone is genuinely ill. Then that person may watch videos and if that person is Vivian, Gabriel can watch, too, since Vivian is his daily playmate. But on with the story.
Last weekend I was up very early Saturday morning with Vivian and walked past the music room in route to the kitchen. I was astonished to see 4 kids sitting indian style around the glowing box in rapt attention--it was 5am! Later in the day, we discovered that everyone had gotten up at 4 in order to hit the video games. Good grief.
This past Friday evening we had a chat with the offspring and decided that the time you get up Saturday morning to play video games is the same time you go to bed Saturday night. This was of some concern to Oliver and Charles. I offered them a modicum of moderation, that it was more a general guideline than a hard fast rule.
Later that night long after the kidlets were in bed, Jon and I were going upstairs to our room when Oliver came down the hall frantically. "I can't see my clock," he said panicked," I don't know what time it is, I need a clock." I was startled by this bizarre request probably because my brain was absorbed by another topic, namely Socrates' trial and Plato's account of the event, but Jon realized immediately what his problem was. "Oliver, it is not even midnight. Go to bed and get up when the sun comes up. You don't need to play video games until the sun is up." Oliver, who wasn't even entirely awake, was able to produce a look of defeat, and Jon escorted him back to his bed- the bottom bunk in his and Charles' bedroom.
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