STAY UP LATE WITH MOM AND DAD

Does everyone remember this entry?
REWARDS FOR CHORES
It has been a Godsend!

After only 3 months of chores, good deeds, good grades, and hard work, the oldest son has been saving every single ticket and has finally reached 75 tickets... which makes him KING OF THE DAY*!
However, he has yet to decide which day he actually wants to spend the tickets on... so I will be back later with more on that...

In the meantime, the youngest son has been spending his earned tickets like crazy.
He has bought extra Wii and internet days, and even a game day with dad.

And yesterday, youngest son discovered he had earned enough tickets to be able to stay up late with mom and dad.  You see, Thursdays and Sundays are already his game/internet days**, and being that last night was a Sunday, he had some big decisions to make on if he actually wanted to spend those tickets, and if so, what exactly he wanted to do during his late night with mom and dad.  I found out it's pretty stressful being 8 years old.  Because MAN did he stress over these decisions... every hour yesterday we would hear, "I don't think I'm going to spend my tickets today."  And then, 4 minutes later, he would proclaim, "Wait!  I've changed my mind, yes I definitely DO want to spent my tickets..."  He went back and forth all day, at one point almost crying out of frustration over such a big dilemma.  I finally told him once he was actually tucked into bed, there would be no more changing of the mind, because once in bed, you stay in bed.  He waited right up until bedtime to hold up 1 finger, nod his head, and say, "Yes.  I am definitely going to spend my tickets and stay up late with you guys."

I had visions of the 'stay up late with mom and dad' being the 3 of us sitting in the dimly lit family room, half-watching some family friendly show, munching on popcorn and discussing the politics of the playground and who has the coolest shoes and video games...




He didn't even want to hang out with us.
He just wanted to play Moshi Monsters.



*sits at head of table, chooses supper, mom bakes a cake, stay up late, and play a game with dad

** 4 years ago, I had enough of the arguments over who played what game for how long on what days and how unfair it was.  So to make it FAIR we designated days for each son.  After chores are done and homework is finished, they can play whatever electronics they want - oldest son has Wednesdays and Saturdays, and youngest son has Thursdays and Sundays.  We have been using this system for 4 years and it has worked splendidly.  I actually learned about it over a burger when I overheard another mom in McDonalds telling her son, "Tomorrow is your game day, my son, and today is your brother's game day."  And I thought "That's brilliant."  So THANK YOU to that mom I overheard in McDonalds.  You had a great idea.