Summer

Hen lost his iPod/iPad privileges* at the beginning of summer - for the entire summer - so that means lots of time spent playing board games, reading, going to the pool, walking up to our local game shop, building forts at a nearby park, kicking a soccer ball or throwing a football on the driveway next to our building, and running up to the gelato stand for the occasional cool treat. Believing it would be too cruel to have zero electronics, we do allow him to work on coding his own game. I'm not a monster.

*Yeah, this happened because the lad refused to try on shorts when asked to do so. I vaguely remember advising him what was at stake - a summer without the iPad - and when his reply was basically a metaphorical middle finger in my direction, the word "okay" came rushing out of my mouth and figuratively smacked him across the face, "O.K." And because I have yet to find a way to cleverly allow him to earn back his privileges without him effectively "winning" against me, well, he goes without. So, yes, kind of a monster but still...one can hardly say he's being permanently damaged because he has to spend time interacting with his friends, outside, while eating ice cream, right?