ohbutno

For those unfamiliar with the term, it describes those moments when you just really think "That cannot possibly be." The boy is currently in an "ohbutno" phase. On Sunday, he failed to comprehend why he was in trouble for the failed "Let's hide our Gameboys so we can play them during the week!" scheme. Since it did not succeed, there should be no consequences (in his mind). On Wednesday night, we had a similar episode that was also related to our household rule of not playing video games during the school week. The boy turned on the Wii. He made the distinction that he did not play the Wii, but he did admit to turning it on while he thought about playing. So our family now has another nit-picky rule: No turning on or hiding video game components with the idea of possibly considering playing them during the times when the game players are off-limits. (How dumb is that rule? FYI- All of the seemingly overly particular rules in our household have origins of this nature.)
Last night Evan asked if he could take the Wii to school with him today. Umm. No. (I am of the firm opinion that video games should not mix with classroom time, and the school's Code of Conduct backs me up on this one. We make one exception at the request of a teacher. Evan has one class period where he has a certain amount of freedom, and we have agreed to the teacher's offered weekly reward of Gameboy play time for fifteen minutes on Friday.) Evan was asking to take the Wii instead of the Gameboy for his reward time. I said no because the Gameboy is sufficient to fill the fifteen minutes of play allowed, and the Wii would be a nightmare to replace if it were lost or damaged.
Imagine the response the boy received when he called home this morning to ask me to bring him the component of the Wii that he forgot. Just so we are fully clear I will repeat myself. Evan called home this morning to ask that I bring him the component to a video game player that he accidentally left at home after being told that he could not take said player to school. I replied that I would not be bringing the missing piece, but that I would most certainly be up at school in five minutes to pick up the Wii from the front office where it had best be waiting. Grrr.
The Wii was waiting in the office when Don and I arrived. Evan was not waiting in the office. He has some sense.