Assisted Procrastination

Dinner is over, the dishes are washing, and it’s not quite time for dessert. It’s that quiet time of the evening when the family begins to settle down from the day. The children are engrossed in a game of Jenga in the family room as I look in from the kitchen. It’s so nice to see them doing something that doesn’t involve a TV, computer, or hand-held game.

In their current round, the tower is almost twice as tall as it was at the start. Because of his age, The Boy (13) has a substantial advantage over The Kid (7). Either she hasn’t realized it or she just enjoys spending time with her brother – I’m betting it’s the latter.

I feel it’s my duty as a mom to make sure the playing field remains even enough that they continue to play games together. Someday, she’ll catch up to him and my assistance won’t be needed. Until then, I’ll just take joy in waiting until he’s in his deepest concentration, taking such care in removing a piece from the unstable tower when I let out a blood-curdling, ear-piercing scream causing him to flail back in a frantic attempt to not lose the game.

They say adrenaline is good for digestion and maybe he’ll sleep better tonight. I know I will.

This entry was posted on July 29, 2008 at 7:26 pm and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.