You Must Choose

Board game vs Video game.

On Sunday after lunch I made each kid choose if they would rather play a board game with the family or play their video games.  I indicated they could have one or the other, not both, although the older kids pleaded for that option.

As I went around the table polling the family with my question I found that the four year old quickly chose the board game.  The older children sitting at the table winced and squished their faces in pain as they were forced to choose the board game (the answer they knew I wanted) or their video games.

After much deliberation and after I assured them that my feelings weren't going to be hurt no matter the answer, I got my answers.  Meredith chose the video games and Randy, refusing to answer, asked his sister to answer for him.  Not wanting to be alone in her choice, she chose video games for Randy, but I could tell he wasn't upset with the result.

So for the next hour or two the children went their separate ways to play video games.  Then I brought out a board game and started setting it up.  One by one, the electronics were turned off and everyone came to the table.  Yes, the four year old was the first one there.

It turns out that we had plenty of time for both electronic and non-electric games that day.  When we were finishing up our board game, Randy asked, "So why did you make us choose only one earlier."  I told him I was just curious what they would say.

Truly, I knew I was setting myself up by making them choose.  We limit access to the video games pretty strictly most of the time, so their time playing games is precious to them.  I wasn't surprised that the video games won the vote, but it made me glad that they struggled with their choice.