Two dollars

Sam has been a little obsessive about computer games lately. I've been down this road before. There was the infamous incident when I took the kids hiking and suddenly Dan (age 8) was gone. It was getting dark & I was feeling panicked, searching all over the dense forest. I walked home with the other kids, ready to call the police. I found Dan - he had walked HOME and was playing this addictive computer game.

So this morning before 7 a.m. Sam started up about the same computer game - Runescape. He desperately wanted to play it. In fact Dan had told him about the game and told him that when his character had died when he was 9, he had cried himself to sleep. OK. Back to Sam. I threw out a challenge. I explained to Sam that no matter what he wasn't going to get to use the computer for the next 5 days. But if he didn't mention the computer in any way on those days I would pay him $2 per day.

Sam: "Can I ask questions?"

Marsha: "Yes, for the next 5 minutes you can ask questions and then the challenge starts."

Sam: "Can I use the $2 to buy computer time?"

This just sent me into fits of laughter. At 7 a.m.

Sam sat around looking pathetic, crying uncontrollably and loudly - temper tantrum style - etc.

By 10 a.m. he had 3 strikes from saying things like, "I am so bored because I can't ... well you know ..."/ "Mom, it doesn't count when I talk to OTHER people about the computer, does it?" and "Since I cannot mention this, I guess I'm just not going to mention it."

It could be a very long day.