heartwarming ... or maybe not

if you've ever been involved in an icebreaker activity, you might have been asked at some point about the object that you'd make sure you grabbed on your way out of your burning house.  you know, as soon as you have made sure every person is out safely -- what physical thing would you want to save?  i've been a part of such discussions a few times in my life and have typically heard answers like jewelry, or photo albums, or family heirlooms of some sort.  for me, after some consideration, i've decided that it would be the oil paintings of the children.  granted, these aren't the smartest things to want to save, as they're fairly large and heavy and nailed into the wall.  (but now i'm getting way into specifics when the whole point of the exercise is to reveal something about yourself to a group of strangers.)

anyway, if you were to pose this same question to liam, i can tell you without a shadow of a doubt what his response would be.  he wouldn't bat an eyelash before coming up with his answer.  what would he save?

the wii.

years ago, we dragged our feet for months before relenting and giving chris's parents the green light to give him a wii for his sixth birthday.  looking back, i don't know why we waited so long.  i guess we were worried that he'd become obsessed with the thing ... which, of course, he has.  but what we hadn't considered was all the GOOD things that can come out of having something so dear to a child's heart.

we have learned that giving or taking away wii privileges is the single best consequence/motivator/discipline tool/threat/reward that we could ever dream of.  you want liam to stop doing something?  discuss the possibility of removal of wii time.  want to reward him out of the blue for something?  give him ten minutes -- unsolicited -- with the wii.  the child only gets about twenty minutes of wii time a day, so giving him extra time is life-changing.  taking it away from him is crushing  -- and he makes sure you know it.  (and yes, i'm fully aware that this Nintendo plan would never be endorsed by any parenting expert.  and yet, i'm not afraid to admit it.  it works for us.)

last week, his behavior was such that i had to take away his wii time for saturday.  i honestly don't even remember what he did, but i remember the day because of what happened saturday afternoon.  the four of us were on a hike (well, we called it a hike to make it sound exciting -- it was really a walk) on the greenway trails near the art museum.  liam and susanna ran ahead and looped back around, meeting up with chris, while i lingered around the corner looking at a sculpture.  i was out of sight, but not out of earshot, so i could truly enjoy this gem of a conversation.

one of the many pieces of art along our hike.  there's probably some beautiful name for this thing, but the kids just called it "corn on the cob"

liam:  "where's mommy?"

chris:  "oh no!  we've lost her!"

liam (skeptical):  "really?"

chris:  "no, silly.  she's right around the corner.  besides, what would we ever do without mommy?"

liam (without missing a beat): "play more wii."

wow.  nice to be missed.

so let me revisit this burning house scenario.  i guess that it's quite possible that i might only have time to grab one oil painting ... would anyone blame me if i just so happened to save susanna's?