The Game

This is one of the best things about summer.  Brothers and sisters are able to relax and spend time together.  And guess what?  They like each other!  Their main activity during the long summer evenings has been "The Game."  It's played on the swingset/clubhouse and has levels just like a video game.  I don't know any of the rules because the thing that makes it work is that nobody is watching.  During The Game yesterday, I asked Freestone if they could watch Ptolemy in the back yard and keep him safe.  He replied, "Mom, that would be impossible.  We're playing The Game."  Then he looked at Ptolemy and said,  "But we could pause it." 

One night, Ruby had told the little kids that she would play The Game with them from 5:00 until 11:00 PM.  Around nine when Scott told Freestone it was bedtime, he said, "No.  We're playing The Game until eleven.  Ruby said."  Some of our kids are night owls and some of them have activities that go until late, but I still like to have some semblance of order.  Usually, when I say bedtime, I mean right this minute, and they know it.  During the school year, evenings are chock full of homework and ballet and responsibilities of every sort right up until lights out.  In the summertime, though, the rules seem to shift.  Somehow, it doesn't even seem appropriate or right to suggest bedtime when your children are laughing together in the cool, golden light.  Isn't it just exactly what we want, that they love each other and play nicely?  Interrupting the sublime for the mundane just seems wrong.  More fitting for a summer evening is falling asleep on the front porch under starlight after conquering several rounds of The Game with your sisters.