Even Steven

James was home sick again. Just a low grade fever today, but still. He got to play a whole lot of Mario Kart, so was happy about that. I have not given him his ADHD meds the past two days that he’s been sick and he’s done fine without them. As long as he does not have to focus on school, he really doesn’t need the medicine. Unlike Blake, who without the meds turns into a very noisy, very, very hyper boy that stimulates his brain by getting a rise out of people and acting manic.

From the moment we picked up Blake from school today, he was in a foul mood. His perceived unfairness at the fact that James “got to” stay home and play video games was obviously really gnawing at him. He also wanted James to have to make work up that he had missed at school and was so mad that he didn’t have any work given to him to do. (his teacher said they did a lot of tests the past 2 days.) No amount of discussion about the why’s was going to satisfy him, so we just got home and tried distractions. It’s exhausting having Blake want everything totally and completely fair and “Even Steven” all the time. Of course, it’s not possible, but since it’s one of Blake’s triggers for meltdowns, I am always very aware about it.

I made sugar cookies with homemade frosting and the kids all took a short break from the video games to decorate 2 cookies each. Blake’s best friend (and next door neighbor), Michael, came over and played with him.

I have to quickly explain my video game policy…my boys were getting way too obsessed about playing video games, so we had a family meeting and decided on no video games Monday – Thursday. It does make for a nice week. Homework gets done and not rushed through. Tests get studied for. There are not the endless video game arguments. But, it does make for a Friday in which that is all they want to do. I still don’t have the perfect system figured out. I would like to not have video games at all. I see a lot of harm in them. My husband thinks they are not at all harmful. The boys, obviously, would both play until their eyes fell out. I hate always being the bad guy about it. What has worked for other families?