A (Not So) Funny Little Story

Anyone who knows Brandon knows his happy, energetic, love for life attitude. It's great to have such an optimistic kid around at times and he always seems to help us see the good rather than the bad. He also definitely has a one track mind! There are a lot of good things that can be associated with this quality, like never quitting, try try again, and never let it get you down kind of philosophies. Sometimes, though, it can get him into trouble.

Mario Kart Wii was recently added to our growing  arsenal of video games and the kids have had a lot of fun racing each other. They recently have figured out how to unlock new levels and open new characters to beat the game. Wally and I have had our suspicions about a certain little boy who was getting up extra early in the morning to play a game or two before everyone else wakes up. This wouldn't necessarily be a problem if it wasn't a rule in our house about no video games in the morning. We asked him repeatedly if he knew anything about this to which he always replied with "not me!" (fortunately he doesn't cover his tracks very well). Well, lucky for us a friend gave us a motion sensor when we moved into the new house.

You can imagine the startle when we heard the receiver "ding dong" at a very quiet, early hour of the morning. I gasped when I saw what time it was. It went off a little before 3:30 a.m. Quietly, Wally made his way down the stairs to confirm our suspicions. There he was, with the volume turned all the way down to zero with controller in hand, racing to his little hearts content. Wally made a little sound with his foot, to which Brandon turned his head, realized he was caught and just let out a sigh as he hung his head down that confirmed his worst fear, getting caught. After a firm command to get back to bed and to not get up again until morning, the night was quiet again.

So, this is the part of the story where I start to wonder what it is that makes a kid so focused and so determined that he gets up at insane times during the night to play a video game. If only I could just channel that energy into something that is actually constructive and good for him, like school or sports! It is pretty funny after the fact and a sentence was given and he lost any and all gaming privileges for two weeks with the threat of it being lost forever is this every happens again, along with more than a few extra jobs. Oh, and we have our little secret weapon we make sure is on every night now. Nothing's going to get past us, or at least the sensor.