Stefanie is back in school. She currently spends every Friday in a classroom in Santa Rosa to get back into "nursing shape." So some Friday's Marlene comes to watch the kids, and some times I take off work.
Today I took off work. The kids are on Easter break, so we all got up around 8 and started the day. In the spirit of full disclosure I always have the Mr. Mom thing with Michael Keaton playing in my head when I am on for the whole day. Needless to say, I had an agenda. Dutch babies for breakfast. Friedman Brothers hardware to get the parts to hook up the bathroom sink. Back home for Kate's nap and painting. Off to Napa Home Depot in the afternoon (30 minutes each way) to get the parts Friedman Brothers didn't have.
As an aside, let me discuss our media policies because they do have relevance to my current thoughts. Stefanie and I are cautious about some media. Our kids are well versed on the computer and have a plentiful collection of DVDs. We have a PlayStation 2 and a Wii. However, we limit the amount of time they get in a given week on all these media. The girls watch maybe 2 hours worth of TV each week, if that. Asher mostly only plays video games--usually 2-3 hours on the weekend. So when Asher asked for a Game Boy years ago, we said, "Absolutely not." I had visions of fighting with him at the dinner table, at the breakfast table, when we were walking through the store, while visiting relatives at holidays, while... you get the picture. "Put that Game Boy down!"
So, back to today. As I made breakfast, Asher asked if Sean could come over. Sure. He was at our house 10 minutes later, joined us for breakfast, and headed to the hardware store with us. Everything went pretty well. At little rambunctiousness in the store, that is to be expected. We made it back home, put Kate down, and asked the kids to play outside after I fed them lunch. 2 hours later, Kate wakes up, and we set off for errand #2 -- Home Depot.
Without making the story much longer, I just about reached the end of my rope. In the store, in the car, or in the parking lot, these 5 kids were all over the place and all over each other. We finally make it to the car to start the 30 minute drive home, and I am thinking, "If there was only a way to tone them down a few notches." Then it hit me, what I need is a few Game Boys! So even though I always thought I wanted my kids to talk to me in the car instead of playing a pocket video game, I realized today that there is a good reason so many kids have one.
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