The past two weeks have been rather exciting.  The elder two boys are on school holidays, and so, they get to stay home all day with mummy. 

The first two days, our eldest, Daniel, decided that he would like to sleepover at his uncle’s house.  The routine was that he would come home for lunch, before returning to his other new home.  The second day he came home for lunch as expected.  Later that day, he behaved exceptionally well.  He asked if he could spend another night at his other home.  When I said yes, he wasted no time in finding his way there. 

Without any need for prompting, he took the house keys hanging near the door and opened the door grill. Then, he returned the keys, pushed his bicycle to the gate, opened the gate, pushed the bike out, closed the gate and rode off down the road without looking back. 

I observed all these with amazement and wonder.  He was normally slow moving, and whinny, and fussy, and this and that, before he ever did anything.   A few minutes ago, he just showed me that he was capable of doing an eight step process in a methodical, efficient manner.  And all these he did with no adult supervision needed. 

I seriously needed to find out what was so enticing at his new home that turned my normally laid back big baby into Mr Fast-And-Efficient. 
I called my mum. 

It took me only five minutes to uncover the secret. 

Apparently, he has easy access to a notebook and its endless streams of computer games found on the internet.  He even asked an adult there to set up the notebook for him before he came home for lunch that day. 

And I found out that he had been staying up late playing games for the past two nights. 

I shook my head.  I was not entirely surprised though.  He loves playing computer games more than anything else. 

I kept him home permanently when he came back for lunch the following day. 

He was, naturally, very upset.

Now there are four boys at my home all day, every day until school reopens next week.

There are normally two favourite questions being asked by the boys daily.  Sometimes three, but always these two.

“Can we play the computer today?” and “Can we watch TV?”

I am perpetually finding ways to distract them from these two of their favourite pastimes. 

“Why don’t we read a book first?” I’d say.  “Why not play some pirate games first?  Why not do some drawing first?” 

“And then, can we play the computer?” they’d reply.

Somehow, they had learnt the skill of negotiation far better than cultivating good manners. 

One fine day, after a difficult morning of endless pleas from them to play the computer, I stopped negotiating with them. 

“Well, if there is nothing you’d want to do besides playing the computer, you can sit and sulk, and do nothing,” I said. 

And that was that.  It was final, and they knew that I meant it. 

James, an extrovert, started to wail and cried many a tear. 

Daniel, an introvert, put on the saddest face ever to show his unhappiness.

And Brian, being only four, was not bothered at all by the whole explosive scenario. 

The boys literally sat in a corner, and sulked. 

I took no pity on them. 

I reckoned sitting down and doing nothing was better than being exposed to the violence, foul language and, sarcasm that the boys had easily picked up from the TV.   And the computer does funny things to young boys.  Playing games make them forget to eat, sleep and pee.        

Sat and Sulk they did, but not for long. 

The boys started fooling around among themselves.  One decided that he would strip naked and do a dance.  The other two started throwing the sofa cushions on the floor, playing a game that they had made up. 

I am just happy to fade into the background, giving them space to kid around. 

This sure beats watching TV and playing computer games!

Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

Cheers! And a good day to you.