My 7 year old son is a boisterous ball of kinetic and frenetic energy. When his energy level is high, he can not stop making noise. Be it talking loud and fast, singing loud, making nonsense sounds loud or just plain yelling at the top of his lungs. Mix that with his love of video games, particularly the Nintendo WII and almost any Mario game, and he is off the charts.
He has been looking for a way to get Julia and I to buy him another Mario game called "Mario Smash Brothers Brawl" but we have resisted since Christmas is so close. "Put it on Santa's list" we've said repeatedly. But he keeps wheedling. To make a long story short, he was bouncing off the walls when we were out to dinner earlier this evening. I finally told him if he could remain quiet till I woke up in the morning, I would get him the Mario game.... I never saw him shut his mouth so fast. He just shook his head, "yes". In my mind this was a safe bet. It would keep him quiet for a bit but there was no way he would last the rest of dinner. I expected him tocrack in under 20 minutes. To my surprise he started passing me notes on napkins clarifying the conditions. "Can he cough or sneeze?" "when
exactly in the morning can he start talking?" Uh Oh, he was "in it to win it". Well it is now 10 pm and he hasn't uttered a word and he's snoring in bed. Although they enjoyed his silence, his sisters sided with him and took turns reading him a book when we got home. I am impressed by how seriously he's taking this. I knew that his video games were a powerful motivator, but underestimated his self control and ease with which he is carrying out the bet. I think I've been hustled!
[Sent from my iPhone 3GS]