Can you tell he's sulking a bit? But I'm proud of him. He got his uncle's Xbox 360 out and all hooked-up, but couldn't get it to play on the TV in the bedroom. I told him he had 45 minutes and he was panicking that all his precious game time was being used up just getting things connected. So I said the clock doesn't start until you actually get playing.
But we still couldn't get a picture on the screen. We could hear Madden and the players, but the screen was black. Connect, reconnect. Video, VCR, TV--shouldn't one of these buttons get us a picture? Try the TV in the living room--same thing. After almost an hour, the words I knew he hated to hear: We need to stop--we'll ask John how to hook it up when he gets home tomorrow.
So how will he take it? Last summer when we had to leave Carowinds without riding the NASCAR ride, it was a bad scene on the way back to the car. Seven hours of fun, but no NASCAR ride and it was THE WORST DAY OF MY LIFE! There was a little chat on the way home about appreciation and disappointment and self-control and growing up.
It had to be hard to pack up the Xbox and put it back in the closet--it was bad enough not playing, but he still had to do all the work! Then he flopped in the chair with his head in his hand. Didn't say a word. You could feel that he had an attitude, but he didn't let it control him. Sat like that for an hour. I told him I was proud of him, and that I Ioved being his grandpa.
I used to think of discipline as the consequences of doing something wrong--like punishment. Now I think it's just as much the pain of learning patience and limits...
But afterward there will be a quiet harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.
